For the first time since World War II, the life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by one year during the first six months of 2020 as the COVID-19 / Trump Virus swept across the nation. Preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate minority and vulnerable communities were hit even harder:
"Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with Black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics, nearly two years, according to preliminary estimates Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
'This is a huge decline,' said Robert Anderson, who oversees the numbers for the CDC. 'You have to go back to World War II, the 1940s, to find a decline like this.' [snip]
'What is really quite striking in these numbers is that they only reflect the first half of the year ... I would expect that these numbers would only get worse,' said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a health equity researcher and dean at the University of California, San Francisco." (our emphasis)
As COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. stand at 490,717 as of today, it's a reminder of the deadliest legacy of fascist demagogue and sociopathic science-denier Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump, who when confronted last August with the number of people dying from the virus coldly said "it is what it is." At the time, the death toll stood at 156,000, as he encouraged businesses to reopen and scoffed at mask wearing.
3 comments:
The ripple effect, the long-lived repercussions and the permanent loss of lives are all going to echo with us for decades. I hope that as this virus is beaten and we come through it, people heal and can move forward. But also let us remember that a corrupt president knew it was dangerous, told no one, and then took deliberate actions to prevent states from acquiring the necessary goods to fight it. And then used medical technology available only to the rich to fight it when he caught it himself, defiant of the rules to wear a mask and be socially distant.
Trump let this happen. He bears responsibility for Americans losing years of life expectancy.
donnah -- He "downplayed" it and actively resisted measures (lockdowns, etc.) to keep the virus from spreading. He played games with states' ability to get PPE, etc. He's a murderous monster who would be behind bars in a more just world.
This clearly demonstrates that Covid-19 was just another flu that will magically go away...
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