Trump Could Have Averted 40% of COVID Deaths

By Staff, Agencies

The United States could have prevented almost half of the total number of the coronavirus deaths in the country, if mortality rates matched other high-income nations, said a commission assessing the Donald Trump era.

The commission of health experts, The Lancet, released a report on Thursday, saying that 40% of the victims of COVID-19 pandemic could have still been alive, had the US death rates corresponded with the rates in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.

The panel denounced Trump’s “inept and insufficient” response to the health crisis, saying that he “brought misfortune to the USA and the planet during his four years in office.”

The US has confirmed 471,000 deaths from the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University that keeps data on COIVD-19.

The number is widely expected to go above half a million in the next few weeks.

More than 27,287,173 Americans have been infected with the virus, so far.

The Lancet report confirmed that the pandemic has disproportionately affected people of color with the death rates among African-Americans – increasing 50% compared to whites.

Coronavirus deaths for people of color are 1.2 to 3.6 times higher than for whites, it said.

Trump has been widely condemned for not taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously soon enough, spreading conspiracy theories, not encouraging mask wearing and undermining scientists and others seeking to combat the virus’ spread.