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President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, in which more than 200,000 people have died in the US, has become a key issue in the upcoming elections.
He has been criticized for downplaying the virus in the early stages and for recording the highest number of Covid-related deaths in the world in the United States.
Triumph: ‘We have one of the lowest death rates‘
The president has compared death rates elsewhere with those in the United States, saying they are considerably lower.
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I heard we have one of the lowest death rates, maybe the lowest in the world.
Comparisons between countries are not straightforward, as there are different approaches to reporting coronavirus data.
The United States has the highest number of cases and the highest number of recorded deaths overall of any country in the world.
However, when per capita deaths are looked at, as a proportion of each country’s population, it is no longer at the top of the list, although it remains among the 10 most affected countries.
- Is the United States the country most affected by deaths?
10 countries with the most deaths from coronavirus per capita
Trump has also recently pointed to the growing number of new infections in Europe, saying: “Frankly, your numbers are at a much worse level than the numbers here.”
- Where are the global hotspots?
It is certainly the case that some countries in Europe are experiencing an increase in new cases, but that is also true in some parts of the US.
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Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has questioned several Trump coronavirus claims
Joe Biden: ‘President Trump ordered his administration to slow down coronavirus testing‘
At a rally in June, President Trump told the crowd, “I told my people, slow down the tests, please.”
But he has since called his comments “semi-ironic.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s leading infectious disease expert, said: “To my knowledge, none of us have been told to slow down the testing.”
However, the president has called the evidence “a double-edged sword” and says an increase in evidence may give an exaggerated impression of the increase in cases.
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Triumph: ‘I’m drinking [hydroxychloroquine] and I’m still here … what have you got to lose?‘
In May, Trump announced that he was taking hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a preventive measure against Covid-19.
But there is no evidence that the drug can fight the virus.
The president has consistently advocated for the use of the drug, against the advice of Dr. Fauci, who said: “We know that every good study – and by good study I mean a randomized control study in which the data is firm and credible – it has shown that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in treating Covid-19. “
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised against using the drug to treat coronavirus patients, following reports of “serious heart rhythm problems” and other health problems.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is “currently no evidence” that it is effective as a treatment or prevents Covid-19.
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Dr. Fauci has frequently challenged President Trump’s approach to the pandemic
Biden: ‘President Trump tried to block CDC funding’
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the government agency responsible for public health in the US, has had disagreements with the president during the pandemic over lockdown guidelines and other measures.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden made this comment on Twitter in July without providing context or evidence.
At the time, US lawmakers were negotiating a major coronavirus aid package, and there were reports in the US media that the Trump administration had been pushing to cut funding from the CDC.
However, the White House has denied blocking funding, saying: “The Biden team’s claim is false. In our latest budget, the CDC saw an increase of $ 635 million (£ 500 million), an increase of 8 % “.
This is true, and the CDC has received more money during the response to the pandemic.
The Trump administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2021, beginning in October 2020, initially proposed cuts to the CDC, but is now poised to increase funding, including for infectious disease-related activities.
Trump: ‘We roll out rapid test kits in every nursing home in America’
Nursing home testing is important, as older people are more likely to be vulnerable to coronavirus.
In the early stages of the pandemic, there were large numbers of nursing home deaths in the US, as in many other countries.
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Millions of Coronavirus Tests Have Been Sent to US Nursing Homes, According to the White House
The White House has said that Trump’s statement was accurate and that 4.9 million rapid point-of-care tests had been delivered to nearly 14,000 certified nursing homes.
- How bad is the crisis in America’s nursing homes?
According to figures from the CDC, there are 15,600 nursing homes, with 1.3 million residents.
“Testing of nursing home residents and staff has been challenging, as it has been for other sectors of healthcare,” says Professor Debra Bakerjian of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing in California.
“The effort to provide testing to nursing homes is progressing, but not without obstacles along the way,” he says.
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Vice President Mike Pence has led the US effort to fight coronavirus
Trump: ‘If you remove the blue states … we really are at a very low level’
President Trump has said that Democratic-controlled states, known as blue states, are responsible for the high number of coronavirus deaths in the United States.
“If you remove the blue states, we are at a level where I don’t think anyone in the world is,” Trump said recently. “We are really at a very low level.”
“Take out New York and some of these other Democratic-run states, you’ll see numbers that are incredible.”
The Democratic National Committee tweeted in response: “Covid is not a red status or blue status issue.”
Of the five states with the highest number of coronavirus deaths, two are Republican-led “red states”: Texas and Florida.
US states with the highest number of deaths from Covid-19
It’s true that in the early stage of the outbreak, Democratic-controlled states like New York and New Jersey were hit the hardest.
But as the pandemic progressed, Republican-led states have produced a higher proportion of deaths.
The Washington Post has recently calculated that about 53% of deaths have occurred in the “blue” states and 47% in the “red” states.
