A staggering figure
More Americans have now died in connection with Covid-19, than died during the entire Vietnam War.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the global pandemic has killed 58,365 people in the United States, surpassing the 58,220 Americans that were killed in combat throughout the war, in which the US’s involvement spanned eight years.
Despite the staggering death toll in America, a number of states are insisting that restrictions should be eased, with the mayor of Las Vegas recently claiming that it is time to reopen the casinos to the public.
Recent figures suggest that the number of confirmed US coronavirus cases has passed one million – representing a third of the global total – and has doubled in 18 days.
Trump has defended the high number of confirmed Covid-19 cases that America has seen, claiming that it is due to the amount of testing being done.
On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted: “The only reason the U.S. has reported one million cases of CoronaVirus is that our Testing is so much better than any other country in the World. Other countries are way behind us in testing, and therefore show far fewer cases!”
The only reason the U.S. has reported one million cases of CoronaVirus is that our Testing is sooo much better than any other country in the World. Other countries are way behind us in Testing, and therefore show far fewer cases!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 29, 2020
The last comparable death toll in the USA was the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed 675,000 Americans. More recently, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 left 1,200 people dead. The infamous terror attacks of September 11, 2001, killed 2,977.
