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Shortly before the elections in the US, US President Donald Trump questioned the effectiveness of the strict daily restrictions and the handling of the corona virus in Europe. “The explosive cases in Europe have shown that the draconian blockades – that’s them, draconians – do not stop the virus,” the Republican said Saturday at a campaign rally in Newton, Pennsylvania. “Italy was locked in and now it’s starting again.”
Trump also boasted three days before Tuesday’s election date that the excess death rate in the United States was 40 percent lower than in Europe. “And Europe did a good job, it is something very brutal. Everyone thought that Germany is doing well, well, well, well. But it is not doing well,” he said. “You can see what’s going on there, France again, Spain, Italy. We’re fine. We just don’t get any credit for it.”
It was unclear what numbers Trump was referring to by his statement. The excess mortality indicates how many more people have died in a certain period of time than in a comparable previous period.
Up to 320,000 dead
In the United States, a forecast from the CDC health authority fluctuates between around 236,000 and 318,000 deaths in relation to the corona pandemic. The United States is a country of about 330 million people and, according to Johns Hopkins University, it has more than 230,000 confirmed deaths by corona.
The European Euromomo alliance currently assumes that around 223,000 people have died from the virus in the countries that provide data. Around 448 million people currently live in the European Union, and not all EU countries provide data for Euromomo.
Trump is running for re-election on Nov. 3, but he is behind his challenger Joe Biden in national polls. Due to the complicated voting system, polls are of limited value. The president has played down the risk of the coronavirus for months and is resisting strict preventive measures in the United States.
