U.S. coronavirus death toll approaches milestone of 500,000

This will be donald’s legacy!!!!!

Donald Trump, whose handling of the crisis was judged by public health experts to be a singular failure.

Indeed, Trump's biggest failure was the way he bungled handling the pandemic. But blame also needs to be apportioned.

Trump's government agencies also failed; time will tell whether that was a result of Trump's interference in their operations, or the people he appointed to run them.

State governments also failed. Local governments also failed.

And the 'no one can tell me I can't infect other people' plus the 'it's a hoax' crowd compounded problems. With help from 'foreign' nations paying keyboard warriors to target America's most alienated and perhaps most poorly educated in those nation's ongoing attempts to further rile them up while pushing anti-democracy, pro-authoritarian messages.

Placing infected people into care homes didn’t help much either as was also the case in UK.

Dying with COVID is not the same as dying of COVID.

It's not completely fair that many blame Trump for this. It also has a lot to do with both parties infighting and governors refusing to listen. Not to mention the west culture which refuse to wear mask and accept lockdowns. Plus black live matters movement made things a lot worse when the riots happen. Blaming him is just using 1 man as a scapegoat and shifting the blame. Everyone was responsible for this whole disaster.

It's doubtful whether all 500,000 of these individuals would still be alive had Covid never happened.

No it isn’t. There is no doubt that some would have already passed.

Dying with Covid does not necessarily equate to dying from Covid.

This is true. I’m pretty sure nobody ever said it did.

*The vast majority of these people were already in their final years** and many had seriously underlying conditions.*

Vast majority? A study has found an average of 14 years of expected life lost to the disease in the U.S. That’s not “final years”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9273783/More-20million-years-life-lost-Covid-study-claims.html

Agree with @burning. Diet and lifestyle are very important factors in these figures.

With help from 'foreign' nations paying keyboard warriors to target America's most alienated and perhaps most poorly educated in those nation's ongoing attempts to further rile them up while pushing anti-democracy, pro-authoritarian messages.

all governments are at it. The US of A has overthrown more governments than the rest of them put together

Diet and lifestyle are very important factors in these figures.

Are they? I've been a proponent of good health my whole life. I've never gone through lengthy periods of inactivity, I haven't used drugs since I was in my 20s, I rarely drink. So I want to believe that diet and lifestyle help, but, plenty of healthy people catch covid. I've tried to find research to determine if a robust immune system actually is better able to stand up to covid, but I haven't found anything conclusive. I'm still not sure that having a good diet and lifestyle makes one more immune to covid beyond a negligible amount.

It's not completely fair that many blame Trump for this. It also has a lot to do with both parties infighting and governors refusing to listen.

You can't completely blame Trump, but as the leader of the nation, it's primary on his shoulders. Particularly due to his ineptitude in politicizing matters like social distancing and wearing a mask, so as to try to not let the economy shut down inuring his one-trick pony. A competent leader would have taken a science-based approach and tried to bring the people together. Instead Trump politicized the matter, and the people then, as you stated, started infighting and refusing to listen.

Part of the problem is that Americans in general are very unwilling to make any personal sacrifice for the greater good of the people. So when Trump started with his incompetent politicization of the matter, he found many people who just wanted a politician to tell them its ok to be selfish, so that they could abandon any feeling of responsibility for not taking effective measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

So no, not entirely Trump's fault. But the buck stops at the top, and due to his poor leadership, he shoulder's the lion's share of the blame.

It's doubtful whether all 500,000 of these individuals would still be alive had Covid never happened.

Dying with Covid does not necessarily equate to dying from Covid.

The vast majority of these people were already in their final years and many had seriously underlying conditions.

Statistically, the total number of deaths in the US in 2020 is not far off from 2019, 2018, or 2017.

Curiously, while Covid deaths are way up, pneumonia, heart disease and respiratory failure are all way down.

@Burningbush,

Laughably false.

American life expectancy fell by one year, to 77.8 years, in the first half of 2020 alone. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/us/covid-life-expectancy.html

It's doubtful whether all 500,000 of these individuals would still be alive had Covid never happened.

Dying with Covid does not necessarily equate to dying from Covid. 

The vast majority of these people were already in their final years and many had seriously underlying conditions.

Covid or not, we will all die.

But you can not deny many would still be alive at this time. Covid was the trigger.

I do think myself that covid is not dangerous if we are healthy, and we should not be the victims of the collateral damages dictated by the government policies, but I will not deny that covid was the cause for some with underlying conditions or old.

It will take the US years to recover from this fully. To be honest, I doubt they ever will. Along with the UK, the Covid pandemic could not have been handled worse by those nations. Most 3rd world nations handled things far better.

Trump sure did leave Biden a mess to clean up.

Out of a population of 330 million, one half million dead so far. That is one out of every 660 people in the country, more than the number that died in WW I, WW II, and the Vietnam War, combined. Thanks for nothing, Trump.

Meanwhile, I keep hearing some people clamor to stop taking steps to prevent the spread of the disease, as if half a million deaths isn't enough.

But the stock market is doing great, almost like it has nothing to do with anything, also there will be that group who will come in soon telling us that 99% are fine. Another day of USA Republican capitalism where no one matters with 1/3 of the population actively keeping it this way. No consequences for almost overthrowing their own government.

Incredibly sad and just such a waste. A lesson in the perils of conservatism for the world.

2021 will let us know if the USA can turn it around or just how far gone it really is

And yet all these people with underlying issues were living with them right up until THEY DIED OF COVID.

Actually 500k deaths are just the ones we know about. Even accounting for the COVID deaths we know about, there were 4-500,000 excess deaths last year. That is, 4-500,000 more deaths than would be expected from a population and age distribution for a given life expectancy.

Certainly a large percentage of them were undiagnosed COVID deaths or deaths in which COVID was a contributing factor.

This will be donald’s legacy!!!!!

I think his legacy will be living rent-free in everyone's head the world over. People still can't get over him.

It's doubtful whether all 500,000 of these individuals would still be alive had Covid never happened.

Curiously, while Covid deaths are way up, pneumonia, heart disease and respiratory failure are all way down.

Is that the best defense of Trump's legacy?

I am Doubtful that your Curiosity is really about the truth.

Instead Trump politicized the matter, and the people then, as you stated, started infighting and refusing to listen.

This is not entirely accurate; the Democrats also politicized the matter early on. Remember that they lambasted Trump for banning travel from China with Biden saying it was "xenophobic" and Pelosi going to Chinatown in SF and urging everyone to do the same and not be anti-Chinese like Trump. Pretty weak rhetoric considering numerous nations had banned travel from China the week before and it had nothing to do with racism.

But that's the political partisan hack world we live in today.

I think his legacy will be living rent-free in everyone's head the world over

I think this phrase du jour will also be not paying your head much rent.

Trump will always be remembered for his lies and his Corona incompetence.

This is not entirely accurate;

It is accurate. No point in arguing over the many mischaracterizations.

"The buck stops here," but T***p is never to blame.

People still can't get over him.

This only one month after he’s gone. Hillary and Obama would be very amused.

And one wonders how many of these deaths were needless, because we had a former reality TV host and incompetent buffoon as President uttering such nonsense as the virus was a "hoax", was "just one person from China", and that wearing a mask was "Anti-American"...

Indeed, the insurrection and these COVID deaths are forever etched as Trump's legacy....

This only one month after he’s gone. Hillary and Obama would be very amused.

Ouch!

This is not entirely accurate; the Democrats also politicized the matter early on.

After Trump had already politicize it, saying it was a "democrat hoax" and telling people they didn't need to wear masks, and that the country would be open by Easter.

Burning Bush: "Dying with Covid does not necessarily equate to dying from Covid."

We know, we know... and people who die of lung cancer who were heavy smokers didn't necessarily die because they smoked. It's all a farce, smoking helps your throat -- especially menthol, etc. You injected too much bleach, my friend.

Another shoddy article. 500,000 is not "once unthinkable". At the outset of this many health experts and so on were modeling numbers over 2 million. But now that Big Joe is in the saddle, things are going to get better.

At the outset of this many health experts and so on were modeling numbers over 2 million. 

LOL More nonsense from the Covidiot tinfoil brigade!

@Burning Bush Today  06:47 am JST

The vast majority of these people were already in their final years and many had seriously underlying conditions.

Excess mortality during COVID-19 compared with previous years is far higher in the U.S. along with European countries than Japan and South Korea:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/excess-mortality-p-scores?tab=chart&stackMode=absolute&time=earliest..latest&country=KOR~JPN~USA~ITA~GBR&region=World

"The Buck Stops Here" has never meant anything to sociopath of Trump's ilk, especially since his shockingly inadequate intellectual capacity paralyzed his decision-making and inevitably severely compromised his ability to organize and manage the affairs of state as Potus, a job that was clearly to all but 75 million Americans way over his head. As a result Covid in America today is what it is: 500,000 dead and counting.

USA: 330 million people, 500,000 killed by virus..........

Vietnam: 100 million people, 35 killed by virus...........

LOL More nonsense from the Covidiot tinfoil brigade

Only a 5 second Google search-

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/19/the-coronavirus-could-kill-millions-of-americans-cdc-advisor-says.html

Republicans can win elections by cheating and lying but when they have power they fail completely every time. Many studies show that if Trump were not President last year the death rate would be 60% lower in the USA at a minimum. In fact Trump spread the disease with his super spreader events during the campaign telling people to not wear masks. That was a crime to fool the gullible and send them to an early grave. RIP Herman Cain.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/196496/coronavirus-pandemic-could-have-caused-40/ My 2 million was one of the lower predictions..... Insults always a helpful addition to this site.

I think his legacy will be living rent-free in everyone's head the world over. People still can't get over him.

Like Adi and Musso, then?