In grim milestone, United States logs world's highest coronavirus death toll

[rooster59]

In grim milestone, United States logs world's highest coronavirus death toll

By Maria Caspani and Jonathan Allen

 

U.S. Army Major Shandel Panneton and 1st Lieutenant Autumn Kruse, both from the 11th Field Hospital deployed from Fort Hood, Texas verify patient census and bed status information at the Javits New York Medical Station (JNYMS) which supports local hospitals during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in New York City, U.S. April 8, 2020. Picture taken April 8, 2020. U.S. Army/Spc. Nathan Hammack/Handout via REUTERS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States surpassed Italy on Saturday as the country with the highest reported coronavirus death toll, recording more than 20,000 deaths since the outbreak began, according to a Reuters tally.

 

The grim milestone was reached as President Donald Trump mulled over when the country, which has registered more than half a million infections, might begin to see a return to normality.

 

The United States has seen its highest death tolls to date in the epidemic with roughly 2,000 deaths a day reported for the last four days in a row, the largest number in and around New York City. Even that is viewed as understated, as New York is still figuring out how best to include a surge in deaths at home in its official statistics. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T)

 

Public health experts have warned the U.S. death toll could reach 200,000 over the summer if unprecedented stay-at-home orders that have closed businesses and kept most Americans indoors are lifted when they expire at the end of the month.

 

Most of the curbs, however, including school closures and emergency orders keeping non-essential workers largely confined to home, flow from powers vested in state governors, not the president.

 

Nonetheless, Trump has said he wants life to return to normal as soon as possible and that the measures aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus carry their own economic and public-health cost.

 

Speaking by telephone with Fox News on Saturday evening, Trump said he would make a decision "reasonably soon," based on the advice of "a lot of very smart people, a lot of professionals, doctors and business leaders."

 

He said "instinct" would also play a role.

 

"People want to get back, they want to get back to work. We have to bring our country back," he said.

 

Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, told Fox News that "purist medical professionals" who took the position that the only way to minimize loss of life was to shut down the economy and society until the virus was "vanquished" were "half right."

 

He said, "That will minimize the deaths from the virus directly," but added that economic shocks also killed people, through higher depression and suicide rates and drug abuse.

 

"So that very tough decision this president is going to be making is to have to weigh the balance and figure out which path does more damage."

 

In New York, the state's governor and New York City's mayor engaged in a fresh squabble over their efforts to combat the virus in what is now the global epicenter, in this instance over how long schools might stay closed.

 

The state was sometimes slower to impose social-distancing curbs than elsewhere, notably California, while New York's two most powerful officials, both Democrats, sometimes disagreed over matters of jurisdiction and the best terminology for certain measures.

 

They have not appeared in public together since March 2.

 

On Saturday morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared that New York City's public schools would no longer reopen on April 20 but stay closed for the rest of the academic year, saying it was "the right thing to do."

 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, however, later used his widely watched daily news conference to dismiss the mayor's edict as merely an "opinion," and say he would make his own decision on school closures.

 

The current federal guidelines advocating widespread social-distancing measures run until April 30. Trump, who is seeking re-election in November, will then have to decide whether to extend them or start encouraging people to go back to work and a more normal way of life.

 

Trump has said he will unveil a new advisory council, possibly on Tuesday, that will include some state governors and will focus on the process of reopening the economy.

 

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits in the last three weeks surpassed 16 million, as weekly new claims topped 6 million for a second straight time last week.

 

The government has said the economy shed 701,000 jobs in March. That was the most job losses since the Great Recession and ended the longest employment boom in U.S. history from late 2010.

 

EMPTY CHURCHES

 

With more than 90% of the country under stay-at-home orders, the Christian calendar's holiest weekend has mostly featured services livestreamed or broadcast to worshippers at home. With many churches already short of funds, untouched collection plates at a usually busy time of the year add pressure on their finances.

 

A handful of holdout U.S. churches planned to hold in-person services on Easter Sunday, saying their right to worship outweighed public health warnings.

 

But there have been glimmers of hope.

 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, and other health officials have pointed to falling rates of virus hospitalizations and admissions to intensive care units, particularly in New York state, as signs that social distancing measures are paying off.

 

The stay-at-home orders imposed in recent weeks across 42 states have taken a huge toll on commerce and raised questions over how long business closures and travel curbs can be sustained.

 

The Trump administration renewed talk of quickly reopening the economy after an influential university research model cut its U.S. mortality forecasts to 60,000 deaths by Aug. 4, down from at least 100,000, assuming social-distancing measures stay.

 

However, new government data shows a summer surge in infections if stay-at-home orders are lifted after only 30 days, according to projections first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by a Department of Homeland Security official.

 

A new outbreak was reported on Friday in San Francisco, where 68 residents and two staff of a homeless shelter tested positive, in one of the largest known infection clusters yet at such a facility anywhere in the country.

 

And 36 employees became infected with the virus at a beef production plant in Greeley, Colorado, meatpacking company JBS USA said. Two employees have died, said the union representing workers at the plant.

 

https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html

 

(Reporting by Maria Caspani and Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom, David Shepardson and Jeff Mason in Washington, Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, Michelle Conlin and Brendan Pierson in New York, Keith Coffman in Denver, and Lisa Shumaker in Chicago; Writing by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Diane Craft and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-12

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

The US had its first case on exactly the same day as did S.Korea.

 

The S. Korean government responded immediately with nation wide, centrally directed policies that worked.

 

The head of the US Government spent the following 6 weeks, downplaying the risk, waffling about hoaxes, telling lies, playing golf, blaming others and making baseless predictions.

 

The US President has still not directed a nation wide response. 

 

America and Americans are paying the tragic price of Trump’s inability to do his job.

 

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Chomper Higgot

[faraday]

Less deaths per population though.

 

 

[rumak]

well, they are the greatest..... and most unhealthy population on earth   ????

 

" you want fries and a 48 oz coke with that sir ?"

[Eric Loh]

Not dwelling on the past, US will do well if they heed the caution of medical experts to continue with tough social distancing measures and not open up the country too soon. Federal government should do better to coordinate and work with the states and ensure that all medical necessities are adequately purchased and stocked. Government and states should have similar messaging from their top leaders respectively and bipartisanship must be practiced for policies to fight the pandemic. Lastly leave the podium to the scientists and medical experts, 

 

[Canuck1966]

Still thousands and thousands behind China

[Tug]

Just shut trump up and follow the directions of the experts not I repeat not trumps instincts 

[twocatsmac]

19 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The US had its first case on exactly the same day as did S.Korea.

 

The S. Korean government responded immediately with nation wide, centrally directed policies that worked.

 

The head of the US Government spent the following 6 weeks, downplaying the risk, waffling about hoaxes, telling lies, playing golf, blaming others and making baseless predictions.

 

The US President has still not directed a nation wide response. 

 

America and Americans are paying the tragic price of Trump’s inability to do his job.

 

 

The blame game will run for years, I say China virus you say Trump virus.

People are already politicizing and trying to rearrange the narrative of the corvid 19 virus. 

[Don Mega]

25 minutes ago, faraday said:

Less deaths per population though.

 

 

 

Beat me to it, @ 62 deaths/1M population they are well down the leader-board !!

Edited April 12, 2020 by Don Mega

[Bluespunk]

33 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

36 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

A handful of holdout U.S. churches planned to hold in-person services on Easter Sunday, saying their right to worship outweighed public health warnings.

I think you’ll find the real threat to human life outweighs your chanting to an imaginary big beard in the sky. 

[Bluespunk]

43 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

He said, "That will minimize the deaths from the virus directly," but added that economic shocks also killed people, through higher depression and suicide rates and drug abuse.

 

"So that very tough decision this president is going to be making is to have to weigh the balance and figure out which path does more damage."

The more cynical side to me keeps adding

 

”to his re-election campaign”
 

to that final sentence. 

 

I’m sure I’m wrong, no one, not even trump, is that narcissistic...though my cynical side has a view on that as well. 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Bluespunk

[xtof2]

I wonder why...
With a Peace and Medicine Nobel prize leading the country....

[Tug]

4 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

I think you’ll find the real threat to human life outweighs your chanting to an imaginary big beard in the sky. 

Wasent it some church in South Korea that really infected a lot of people when it got started there and now here in the USA floridas governer says ok to the churches for Easter services looks like we are going to repeat the mistake utterly ill responsible and stupid imo

[Enoon]

13 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

The more cynical side to me keeps adding

 

”to his re-election campaign”
 

to that final sentence. 

 

I’m sure I’m wrong, no one, not even trump is that narcissistic...though my cynical side has a view on that as well. 

 

Yes he is.

 

Monsters really exist.

 

They are, thankfully, few and far between.

 

But they pop up every now and then.

 

The problem for ordinary folks is that they themselves cannot really recognise, and accept, that another human could possess the level of evil that these creatures possess .......until it's too late.

 

That is how the monsters are able to exist at all levels of society.

 

They really, really do exist

 

 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Enoon

[stephenterry]

I expect the USA death rates to continue without abating until a suitable antidote is produced by the profit-seeking pharma industry. Current solution drugs and Vit C and Zinc remedies used on many, are not money-makers and will not be promoted by them - quite the opposite in fact, they will be rejected.

 

Given the fact that the majority of obese Americans have underlying health issues as a result of their SAD diet and junk food addictions, their immune system won't cope with the virus.  Black American, Asians, and Middle East (BAME) citizens are of the highest risk according to latest stats produced by the medical fraternity.

[stephenterry]

Excellent post, regretfully. Much appreciated. The US is paying the price of victim demise.

[Curt1591]

The US has the highest published number of cases. 

 

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The US had its first case on exactly the same day as did S.Korea.

 

The S. Korean government responded immediately with nation wide, centrally directed policies that worked.

 

The US's government structure is just a bit more complicated than South Korea's

[Opl]

"As of today, 92% of the USS Theodore Roosevelt crewmembers have been tested for COVID-19, with 550 positive and 3,673 negative results,"  the Navy said in a press release Saturday. Crozier sent a memo to more than 20 people pleading for help when only dozens of people onboard the ship had tested positive for the virus."

More than 10 percent of the 4,800 crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier have tested positive

[samran]

1 hour ago, faraday said:

Less deaths per population though.

 

 

Guess it makes it okay then...

[robblok]

1 hour ago, faraday said:

Less deaths per population though.

 

 

Yes its a bit stupid / sensationalism that they don't take into account how huge the population is. Italy has an almost similar amount of deaths  at a far smaller population. Absolute numbers are fun but sometomes percentages tell a lot more. 

[robblok]

14 minutes ago, samran said:

Guess it makes it okay then...

no but it puts things into perspective. If you look at countries that are hardest hit you have to look at deaths vs polulation. Does not make it ok or make it go away but the headline makes it look as if the US is having a worse time then other countries while any reasonable thinker would see that Italy is hit far harder. 

[Relocated]

2 hours ago, faraday said:

Less deaths per population though.

 

 

 

Everyone feels it is over-blown. Just for reference 80,000 died of flu in 2018. But the panic seems to be thousand time of 2018. 

I don't see anyone panic. 

[faraday]

21 minutes ago, samran said:

Guess it makes it okay then...

No Sam, not at all & as Rob says in post #22, it put it into perspective.

 

Here's a clearer picture:

 

 

 

 

[Eric Loh]

3 minutes ago, faraday said:

No Sam, not at all & as Rob says in post #22, it put it into perspective.

 

Here's a clearer picture:

 

 

 

 

I think a better perspective will be to compare with the world per capita figures for infections and deaths. 

[faraday]

6 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

I think a better perspective will be to compare with the world per capita figures for infections and deaths. 

Yes, & rate at which the infections spread.

 

 

[WalkingOrders]

2 hours ago, rumak said:

well, they are the greatest..... and most unhealthy population on earth   ????

 

" you want fries and a 48 oz coke with that sir ?"

Would you like extra greese with that fish n chips, how bout a deep fried baloney or pork pie deep fried in the tin? Yum. 

 

For healthy people comparison walk a day around a quaint beach town like Blackpool then fly to San Diego and do the same thing.

[JCauto]

2 hours ago, twocatsmac said:

The blame game will run for years, I say China virus you say Trump virus.

People are already politicizing and trying to rearrange the narrative of the corvid 19 virus. 

Fortunately there will be a final tally and that should put to rest arguments about who did better than whom.

[Chomper Higgot]

2 hours ago, twocatsmac said:

The blame game will run for years, I say China virus you say Trump virus.

People are already politicizing and trying to rearrange the narrative of the corvid 19 virus. 

I have never once said the Coronavirus is a ‘Trump Virus’.

[metisdead]

A post in blatant violation of the following forum rule and a reply has been removed:

 

14) You will not post any copyrighted material except as fair use laws apply (as in the case of news articles). Please only post a link, the headline and the first three sentences.

[FritsSikkink]

2 hours ago, faraday said:

Less deaths per population though.

 

 

For now, still close to half a million of active cases. This is more then 35% of the amount of the rest of the world, while having only about 5% of the world population. The numbers are still growing, so a complete mess.

Edited April 12, 2020 by FritsSikkink