President Trump has been hammered for declaring during his Independence Day address that 99% of novel coronavirus cases are “totally harmless,” but what the administration can say is that the U.S. death rate continues to plummet.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany made the point that daily U.S. deaths from COVID-19 continue to drop, and that the U.S. case fatality rate — the ratio between confirmed deaths and confirmed cases — is well below that of France, the United Kingdom and Germany.
“The president is not downplaying the severity of the virus,” said Ms. McEnany at a press briefing. “What the president is noting is that at the height of this pandemic we were at 2,500 deaths per day. We are now at a place where on July 4 there were 254. That’s a tenfold decrease in mortality.”
She said that on July 5, the virus claimed 209 victims, which was down 23% from the previous week.
“What the president was pointing to, and I’m glad you brought it up, was a factual statement, one that is rooted in science and one that was pointing out the fact that mortality in the country is very low,” Ms. McEnany said.
Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control issued an update Friday noting that the death rate from pneumonia, influenza and COVID-19 (PIC) has dropped for ten straight weeks, falling from week 25 to week 26 from 9.0% to 5.9% and almost reaching the point at which the outbreak would no longer be considered an epidemic.
“The percentage is currently at the epidemic threshold but will likely change as more death certificates are processed, particularly for recent weeks,” said the CDC in a July 3 update.
After peaking in March and April, the daily death rate that once touched 3,000 per day fell on Sunday to 251, in large part because younger people who are better able to survive the virus make up a larger percentage of the infected patients.
Alex Berenson, author of “Unreported Truths About Covid-19 and Lockdowns,” said that the “news is significantly better on all fronts” when it comes to SARS-CoV-2, the official name of the virus.
“Despite fact that the number of positive SARS-COV-2 tests (what the media calls cases) in the Sunbelt has been rising for the last few weeks, hospitalizations and especially patients in intensive care and on ventilators are rising much more slowly,” said Mr. Berenson.
In addition, “deaths actually continue to drop to their lowest levels since the epidemic began in March.”
Mr. Trump tweeted that U.S. coronavirus deaths have fallen by more than a third and asked why the “Lamestream Fake News Media REFUSE to say that China Virus deaths are down 39%, and that we now have the lowest Fatality (Mortality) Rate in the World.”
“They just can’t stand that we are doing so well for our Country!” tweeted the president.
Vice President Mike Pence convened Monday a meeting of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, insisting that the federal government would ensure that “states have exactly what they need to respond to the increase.”
The July 4 weekend festivities could result in an uptick in the next two weeks, given the reports of celebrations and beachgoers, not all of whom engaged in social distancing or mask-wearing, but Mr. Berenson said the decline over the last month should hold up statistically.
“Deaths can lag positive cases by a couple of weeks, but they should not lag by a month or more,” he said in an email. “So the decline in deaths is evidence that either the rise in positive tests is occurring mainly among younger people at low risk, doctors are getting better at treating COVID, doctors in [New York] and the early states made unfortunate and possibly preventable mistakes, or the virus itself is becoming less dangerous.”
That message has been all but lost amid the alarm over the summer surge of coronavirus cases and the possibility of a second shutdown.
Several jurisdictions have in recent days issued new restrictions and delayed reopening plans as cases in the sunbelt continue to soar.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giminez announced Monday that he would reinstate an order closing gyms, massage parlors, banquet venues and dine-in restaurant activity after a record 2,418 new cases Saturday. The order takes effect Wednesday.
The mayor said that he would reopen beaches Tuesday after closing them for the holiday weekend, but he warned that “if we see crowding and people not following the public health rules, I will be forced to close the beaches again.”
The state of Florida notched a record 11,458 cases on Saturday, although that number fell to 6,336 on Monday, with a 15% positive test rate as of Sunday. There were 47 deaths statewide related to COVID-19.
Thirty-seven states have seen infections increase in recent weeks as governors and mayors seek to reopen their hard-hit economies following the pandemic shutdown, prompting some officials to crack down on masks and social-distancing rules.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Monday he would sign an executive order mandating the wearing of masks for all those age nine and over whenever indoors where social distancing is not possible, warning that another shutdown could be the next step.
“If we don’t do it — and do it now — we’re going to be in a world of hurt,” Mr. Justice said.
Mr. Trump said during his July 4 address on the South Lawn that nearly 40 million people have now been tested, adding that “by doing so, we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless, results that no other country can show because no other country has testing that we have.”
The statement prompted a flurry of fact-checks and stern reprimands from media outlets and columnists such as CNN’s Maeve Reston, who accused the president of “gaslighting Americans about the threat to their health.”
The World Health Organization has placed the global coronavirus death at less than 1%, which may have been what Mr. Trump was referring to, while noting that 20% of those infected will exhibit severe symptoms.
Ms. McEnany emphasized that the president takes the outbreak “very seriously.”
“Of course, he takes it very seriously,” she said. “Of course, no one wants to see anyone in this country contract Covid, which is why the administration has fought hard to make sure that’s not the case with our historic response effort.”
While Mr. Trump has been accused of downplaying the spike to boost his reelection chances, media outlets have been charged with hyping the uptick in positive-test numbers without offering perspective on the declining death toll.
“Continued efforts by top newspapers and large cable outlets to panic readers and views serve no one,” Mr. Berenson said.
