The death toll attributed to Covid-19 is now officially higher in 2021 than it was in 2020, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker. The quiet admission has attracted little media coverage – and no president-blaming.
According to the Baltimore-based university that has tracked the impact of the pandemic from the beginning, the number of deaths attributed to the virus since January 1 now stands at more than 353,000, compared to 352,000 at the end of 2020.
The official death toll stood at 400,000 on the eve of Joe Biden’s inauguration as president, so it’s technically not accurate that more Americans have died on his watch than under his predecessor Donald Trump – yet.
However, Wednesday’s revelation has prompted some observers to point out that the corporate media outlets blamed Trump personally for every death, while not applying the same standard to Biden.
Others recalled that the media described daily deaths under Trump as “another 9/11” and even demanded his resignation for presiding over more American deaths than the Vietnam War.
Biden himself attacked Trump over the handling of the pandemic, and vowed to do better. His entire campaign was built around the promise to “shut down the virus,” with the help of Dr. Anthony Fauci, top experts, and science.
The first vaccine against the coronavirus was approved for emergency use in the US right after the November 2020 election, and two more soon afterward. Two thirds of all Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine since. Yet the number of cases and deaths seems to have continued apace.
Biden’s first move in office was to impose mask mandates on federal property and in transportation, which remain in effect. Even though mask mandates were lifted in May, most US jurisdictions reimposed them at the end of July, citing the ‘Delta variant’ of the virus. Biden also announced a vaccine mandate through the federal bureaucracy last month, though it has not been implemented yet.
Reactions to Wednesday’s news, insofar as they can be gleaned from social media, appear to fall along partisan lines. While Biden’s critics are pointing out the lack of alarmist media coverage and White House-blaming routine seen in the days of Trump, Democrats are blaming the Republican Party, Fox News and the ‘unvaccinated’ for the death toll.
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