She said in September that the president repeatedly derailed efforts to contain the virus and save lives, focusing instead on his own political campaign.Īs he seeks re-election on 3 November, Trump’s actions in the face of COVID-19 are just one example of the damage he has inflicted on science and its institutions over the past four years, with repercussions for lives and livelihoods. Many experts blame Trump for the country’s failure to contain the outbreak, a charge also levelled by Olivia Troye, who was a member of the White House coronavirus task force. What a Joe Biden presidency would mean for five key science issuesīut Shaman and others suggest that the majority of the lives lost in the United States could have been saved had the country stepped up to the challenge earlier. Quantifying Trump’s responsibility for deaths and disease across the country is difficult, and other wealthy countries have struggled to contain the virus the United Kingdom has experienced a similar number of deaths as the United States, after adjusting for population size. The United States, an international powerhouse with vast scientific and economic resources, has experienced more than 7 million COVID-19 cases, and its death toll has passed 200,000 - more than any other nation and more than one-fifth of the global total, even though the United States accounts for just 4% of world population. “He has sabotaged efforts to keep people safe.” “This is not just ineptitude, it’s sabotage,” says Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University in New York City, who has modelled the evolution of the pandemic and how earlier interventions might have saved lives in the United States. And his appointees have made political tools out of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ordering the agencies to put out inaccurate information, issue ill-advised health guidance, and tout unproven and potentially harmful treatments for COVID-19. His administration has undermined, suppressed and censored government scientists working to study the virus and reduce its harm. Trump has belittled masks and social-distancing requirements while encouraging people to protest against lockdown rules aimed at stopping disease transmission. Over the past eight months, the president of the United States has lied about the dangers posed by the coronavirus and undermined efforts to contain it he even admitted in an interview to purposefully misrepresenting the viral threat early in the pandemic. Trump’s actions - and those of his staff and supporters - should come as no surprise. The president spent 3 days in a hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, and was released on 5 October. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the president has behaved the same way and refused to follow basic health guidelines at the White House, which is now at the centre of an ongoing outbreak. Trump knew it, and later flaunted the fact that the state authorities failed to stop him. US President Donald Trump’s rally in Henderson, Nevada, on 13 September contravened state health rules, which limit public gatherings to 50 people and require proper social distancing. They came out during a global pandemic to make a statement, and that’s precisely why they assembled shoulder-to-shoulder without masks in a windowless warehouse, creating an ideal environment for the coronavirus to spread. People packed in by the thousands, many dressed in red, white and blue and carrying signs reading “Four more years” and “Make America Great Again”.
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