222,000 Dead, But Trump Says America Is 'Learning To Live With' Coronavirus
President Donald Trump continued to pitch himself as the anti-science candidate during the final 2020 presidential debate on Thursday, falsely claiming that America is “rounding the turn” and “learning to live with” the coronavirus pandemic, among other things.
As he’s done before, Trump attempted to paint his administration’s botched COVID-19 response as a success by pointing to one of the worst possible death projections — an early estimate by British researchers that found there could be as many as 2.2 million fatalities in the U.S. if no containment measures were taken.
“This is a worldwide problem, but I’ve been congratulated by the heads of many countries on what we’ve been able to do,” Trump said, without disclosing a single specific world leader. “It will go away, and as I say, we’re rounding the turn, we’re rounding the corner. It’s going away.”
The coronavirus has killed more than 222,000 Americans. And more than 1,100 deaths were reported on Wednesday, the highest daily toll in more than a month.
Trump also claimed that a COVID-19 vaccine is “coming, that’s ready, that’s going to be announced within weeks.” There is nothing to indicate this is true. Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told NPR on Tuesday that he’s “guardedly optimistic” that a vaccine could be available by the end of the year, but widespread distribution is unlikely until mid- or late-2021.
Former Vice President Joe Biden responded to Trump’s COVID-19 misinformation by pointing to the rapidly rising death toll and arguing that Trump still doesn’t have a comprehensive plan to tackle the crisis.
“Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America,” Biden said.
“He says we’re learning to live with it? People are learning to die with it.”
In the weeks ahead of the election, Trump has campaigned on an unhinged anti-science...
