Another Grim Milestone

 Some months ago, President Trump was giving himself credit for such great work in the face of the pandemic of Covid-19, talking about how keeping deaths in the United States to around 200,000 was a remarkable achievement. It wasn't, and it didn't happen.

According to Worldometers website, the US passed 400,000 deaths a few days ago. According to Johns Hopkins coronavirus pages, we're at 398,000 today, so we will pass 400,000 today or tomorrow, at current rates. Some experts have predicted we will reach 500,000 deaths by the end of next month, still well before we make much progress in getting the whole population vaccinated.

I looked at the graph of new cases by day from various countries on the Johns Hopkins website, and was struck, again, by the glaring difference between the United States and most of the other countries. Our graph is the worst, and we have no competition for the title.

I expect there are a number of reasons, but the obvious one is that President Trump and his team are incompetent. The president also contributed to resistance to recommendations like wearing a mask in public and social distancing. His followers, who share his lack of knowledge, attacked such measures as weak, as tyrannical, and as political. They decided that calling for public safety measures was an attack on the president.

At my work, we follow the recommendations. We wear masks all the time when around other people, and we limit time on campus as much as we can. So far as I have heard, we have not had any reports of infections on campus. We have a frightening number of students with infections. I have had ten percent of my students in isolation, either with positive Covid tests, or with symptoms and awaiting test results. Ten percent in two weeks of classes. Some have been quite sick. I find it troubling that anyone would believe that the safety measures are based in politics, or are unnecessary.

The numbers in this country didn't have to be as bad as they are. Competent leadership could have kept the numbers down. A lot. In the face of this, it is a scary thought that a country like this gets the government it deserves.