The final turn

We’re still doing it wrong.

The United States on Friday was approaching a record for the number of new daily coronavirus cases, as a new study warned that the pandemic is set to cause half a million American deaths by February.

This means that with cases surging in many states, particularly the upper midwest, what appears to be a third major peak of coronavirus infections in the US could lead to nearly 300,000 people dying in just the next four months.

Compared to over 200,000 in the last eight months – so that’s a huge leap.

The news came as Anthony Fauci, the top public health official on the White House coronavirus taskforce, said Donald Trump has not met with the taskforce “for several months” and the body itself meets less frequently than it did earlier in the pandemic, despite the fact that [the] outbreak is not yet under control.

Well, it’s nice that he’s feeling relaxed about it.

At a campaign rally late on Friday afternoon, Trump instead claimed without evidence that the US was entering the “final turn” of the outbreak.

The final turn into the abyss, that is.

No, bud, that’s not the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s the fire in the furnace.

In fact the University of Washington warned that the situation will be even more disastrous if states continue to ease off on measures designed to restrict the spread of the virus, such as the shuttering of certain businesses and social distancing edicts. If states wind down such protections, the death toll could top 1 million people in America by 28 February, the UW study found.

Too bad we have a president who tells states to wind down those protections.

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