Trump's Virus Lies and Inaction Cost 54,000 Lives, So Far

From today's New York Times, on the cost in lives of delaying the nation's coronavirus response, we see a damning indictment of Donald Trump's lies and disinformation.

Inaction that cost lives

By the final days of February, many public health experts were sounding the alarm about the coronavirus, and some people were listening.

In the San Francisco area, major employers began directing their employees to stay home. Washington State declared a state of emergency. South Korea, Vietnam and other countries ordered aggressive measures.

President Trump did not.

On Feb. 26, he said — incorrectly — that the number of cases was “going very substantially down, not up.” As late as March 10, he promised: “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”

Some local leaders also continued to urge business as usual. In early March, Mayor Bill de Blasio told New Yorkers to “get out on the town despite coronavirus.”

This kind of advice appears to have cost tens of thousands of American lives, according to a new analysis by researchers at Columbia University.

If the U.S. had enacted social-distancing measures a week earlier than it did — in early March rather than mid-March — about 36,000 fewer Americans would have died, the study found. That’s more than one third of the current death toll, which is about 100,000.

If the measures had been in place two weeks earlier, on March 1, the death toll would be 54,000 lower.

By The New York Times

Trump's Risky Re-Election Reopening Strategy

President Donald Trump has assessed that economic carnage will destroy him in the election. Therefore he's decided to pull out all the stops, throw caution to the wind and push for a rapid re-opening. If the economy rebounds he is a winner and if it doesn't or just kind of muddles along in mediocrity he can at least say he tried. 

The risks for him are these: 1) first, people say 70-30 they are more worried about re-opening too soon than they are eager to reopen right away. They are more afraid of getting sick than the economic pain, at least currently. I would expect that to continue to shift in favor of reopening the more the economic pain grows, though, unless there is a very scary acceleration in infections and deaths (a real possibility, to be sure.) 

2) Data is showing an ominous price for Trump and the GOP's avidity in prioritizing the economy over safety with a group crucial to their electoral chances everywhere, particularly in swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. That group is senior citizens. Yes. They always count on their advantage with older voters to offset Dem support among younger voters. Lose that and they are in dire straits everywhere, because seniors exist everywhere and they vote in higher numbers than other groups. Throw grandma and grandpa under the bus and you just might pay a heavy cost. They are most at risk and most fearful, and polling shows they are deserting. Trump is truly between the proverbial rock and hard place, and has to pick one poison over the other. It will depend on how it all turns out, economic recovery and disease carnage will decide the outlines of the election. 

From NYT I cut and pasted; see ominous finding below:

A recent Morning Consult poll found that Mr. Trump’s approval rating on the handling of the coronavirus was lower with seniors than with any other group other than young voters. And Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee, in recent polls held a 10-point advantage among voters who are 65 and older. A poll commissioned by the campaign showed a similar double-digit gap.