By Larry Johnson
It’s hard to put any kind of positive spin on this.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 175,651 Americans have now died from COVID-19, up 1,000 on Sunday from Saturday.
Altogether, 5.64 million cases of coronavirus have been reported in the U.S.
That includes 45,000 more positive tests than were recorded on the previous day.
Put another way, the coronavirus has now killed the population equivalent of Sioux Falls, S.D., Santa Rosa, CA., or Vancouver, WA. Those aren’t huge cities, but they’re not hamlets, either. Imagine their populations just wiped off the face of the earth. It’s staggering.
A vaccine can’t come soon enough.
The only vaccine available so faris called Sputnik 5, and was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin recently. The problem is, so far, that there isn’t a lot of confidence in its efficacy. Russia will begin clinical trials of the new vaccine next week on 40,000 people in several countries.
Confidence in the vaccine isn’t high, even in Russia, where only about 25 percent of doctors polled said they trusted it enough to administer to patients.
So we’ll see.
A CBS poll out Sunday says that 64 percent of Republicans believes coronavirus deaths are lower than reported — although the poll doesn’t address WHY they believe this. That compares with 36 percent of all voters.
And 73 percent of Republicans polled said the U.S. reponse to the virus is going well, versus 10 percent of Democrats and a third of Independents.
I’m not sure what about 175,000 deaths make them think the U.S. is doing well, but I guess if you think the number of deaths is being overstated, you could reach that conclusion.
