Thursday, August 13, 2020

Stunning US-COVID death estimate in June now grimly low

While Donald Trump said COVID-19 will disappear like magic -

- and Ron Johnson leads the US Senate's COVID-19 shoulder-shrugging/obstructionist caucus, those soulless science-doubters and the rest of us should pay really close attention to these facts:

* Nearly 10 weeks ago, an institute whose data has been used by the White House predicted that by October 1, the US would be looking at a death toll of just under 170,000. That's a huge number, yet:

October 1 is seven weeks away.

* And the reported US death count has already passed 166,000 - growing by about 1,000 daily -  and is estimated to have already surpassed 200,000, The New York Times is reporting.

You can do the math; 250,000-to-300,000 confirmed US COVID-19 deaths by the end of the year is a likely range. That could be at the high end of 100 times more than the horrible death toll on 9/11 of just over 2,900.

Or four-to-five times the number of US deaths suffered during either World War I or the Vietnam War, according to this accounting.

I know facts in some quarters facts mocked and disrespected, but body counts don't lie.

This is why it is irresponsible to put pupils and teachers back together in crowded schools, or to host mass gatherings - whether by science-slamming politicians, on jammed beaches or even in some NFL stadiums - and openly oppose or flaunt masking orders out of willful ignorance or absurdly partisan ideological obeisance that is rooted in the flimsiest 'understanding' of history and science.

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