178,000 Americans have died from CoVID-19.  Two weeks ago that number was 169,000.   We are averaging 1,000 DEATHS a day.  At this rate, 69,000 more Americans will have died by November 3, 2020.  5.2M Americans have tested positive for CoVID.  In raw numbers, America leads the world in deaths due to CoVID.  We are 9th in the number of CoVID deaths per capita.  That may seem like a cause for celebration until you remember that there are 193 countries in the world.  184 countries have fewer CoVID deaths per capita than America.

In his 70-minute closing speech at the RNC Thursday, Trump downplayed the virus and conjured up successes in fighting the virus that do not exist.   He trashed the plan he inherited including a blue print for building a machine that would have manufactured 1.5 million N-95 masks a day.  He did not have a replacement for the plan he simply did not want to use the plan he inherited because it was Obama’s plan.  He undercut the government experts and worked actively to thwart their efforts to control the pandemic.    In short, he has done everything one could do in his position to hamper government’s response to the pandemic.   Partly out of spite and partly to make CoVID and 178,000 dead Americans a non-issue in the campaign.  So, in regard to the latter, as bad as the numbers are, they are not the true numbers.

4 people died in Benghazi.   178,000 is 44,500 Benghazi’s

Trump is under-reporting the number of CoVID cases and deaths.

• He replaced the CDC’s database with a White House database hospitals use to report CoVID test results and deaths.  CDC is denied access to the incoming data and it’s access to the White House database is controlled.  The obvious result will be an input backlog and an overzealous staffer altering the data both (without Trump’s knowledge or approval of course) so that the numbers look better than they are.  True to form, Trump “offered” to send troops to local hospitals to help them input data in the new database.
• He asked hospitals and local governments to “slow the testing down”.
• He changed the CDC’s testing guidelines to exclude testing asymptomatic people even if they had contact with someone who tested positive for CoVID.  This was done without the knowledge or concurrence of the nation’s top infectious disease specialist who was under anesthesia in an operating room when the change was announced.
• He mismanaged the delivery of reliable tests and other supplies needed to test for CoVID.
• He limited resources available to state and local governments for test centers and prematurely closed many federal test sites.

Back to Trump’s RNC speech.  He announced that a vaccine would be available by the end of the year.  Let this sink in:   a serial liar in a campaign speech promises the American people that a vaccine for the virus he let rage out of control will be available AFTER the election.  We are to disregard the fact that he did everything he could to ensure that at least 178,000 Americans would die from CoVID-19.  We are to disregard the fact that he has yet to produce a national plan for fighting the virus.  We are to forget that he and his supporters in the alt-right media politicized wearing masks and is still doing so to this day.  We are not to remember that states like Florida, Texas and Arizona opened sooner than they should have at his urging and that states that did not follow  their lead were penalized.  We are He has done everything one could do in his position to hamper government’s response to the pandemic. not expected to recall that he said he takes no responsibility at all for America’s failing response to the pandemic.

I will leave you with this thought.  4 people died in Benghazi.   178,000 is 44,500 Benghazi’s.  2 people died of the ebola virus on American soil under President Obama.  Trump posted more than 100 tweets criticizing Obama for how he handled the “outbreak”.