New Study Finds 83% of Covid Deaths Could Have Been Avoided If Trump Acted Earlier Instead of Downplaying Crisis
NYT: “If the country had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact on March 1 … a vast majority of the nation’s deaths — about 83 percent — would have been avoided”
A blockbuster new study found that if Trump had imposed social distancing guidelines on March 1st instead of on March 16th — around two weeks earlier — about 83% of coronavirus deaths could have been avoided. This new study reinforces an independent study from last month by two epidemiologists that found 90% of coronavirus deaths could have been avoided if social distancing guidelines had been issued two weeks earlier.
“There’s no longer any doubt that tens of thousands of American died because Donald Trump spent months downplaying the crisis instead of taking decisive action to slow the spread,” said Coronavirus War Room Director Zac Petkanas. “These two studies paint a damning picture of Trump’s failure to listen to public health experts begging him to impose social distancing guidelines before things got out of hand. Trump’s failure to act sentenced thousands of Americans to death. If he’d just acted earlier, thousands of families wouldn’t be mourning today.”
Experts make clear that Trump dropped the ball on social distancing.
- The White House waited until March 16th to issue social distancing guidelines, nearly two months after the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the United States.
- New estimates from Columbia University disease modelers found that if social distancing had started on March 1st, a time when Trump was still downplaying the virus and two weeks before he urged Americans to stay home, about 83 percent of deaths would have been avoided.
- Had the social distancing guidelines been implemented just two weeks earlier, on March 2nd, epidemiologists Britta Jewell and Nicholas Jewell estimated that 90 percent of cumulative deaths in the U.S. during the first wave of Covid-19 could have been avoided.
While Americans were being sentenced to death, and their fates being determined, here is what President Trump and his echo chamber were saying instead of taking decisive action, like issuing social distancing guidelines, during this crucial two week period that could have saved tens of thousands of lives.
- During an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 29th, Trump said, “Everything is really under control.”
- On March 2nd, Trump said the coronavirus was less deadly than the flu.
- Trump to Sean Hannity on March 4th: “It’s very mild.”
- On March 4th, Trump said it was “very safe” to fly.
- Trump on March 7th: “I’m not concerned at all.”
- Trump promised on March 10th: “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
- Trump on March 15th: “It’s something that we have tremendous control over.”