4,000 People Died From COVID-19 While The RNC Pretended The Pandemic Is Over
The novel coronavirus pandemic claimed another 1,116 American lives on Thursday, as Republicans brought a close to a national convention most notable for their repeated insistence that the pandemic is a thing of the past.
For four nights, the GOP largely ignored that a virus most other countries have brought under control is still spreading across the United States rapidly, as if a modest decline from July’s peak in daily case numbers is a reason to celebrate and the deaths of more than 180,000 people here are nothing to mourn.
Across the country, at least 4,024 Americans died from COVID-19 during the four-day Republican National Convention this week, according to Johns Hopkins University. The total number of deaths rose from 176,800 on Sunday, the day before the convention opened, to 180,824 by the time it ended. Put another way: The U.S. lost more lives to COVID-19 during the RNC than it did in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The number of deaths in the United States over that period exceeded the number of new infections in Canada.
President Donald Trump and the GOP, however, acted as if the fight against the virus is over and that he can be credited with winning it.
“These are the incredible workers that helped us so much with the COVID,” Trump said during a Monday speech from the White House, where he stood flanked by police officers, nurses and a truck driver.
His use of the past tense, which would become a theme throughout the convention, was quickly drowned out by his reference to “the China virus,” the racist term he has repeatedly used to shuttle blame for the global pandemic on the country where it originated.
“It was awful,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Tuesday night of the pandemic. “Health and economic impacts were tragic. Hardship and heartbreak were everywhere. But presidential leadership came swiftly and effectively with an extraordinary rescue for health and safety to successfully fight the COVID...
