Trump Wants to ‘Normalize’ Coronavirus Deaths

Margaret Sullivan: “Comparing the number of deaths from covid-19 to those caused by car crashes never made any sense. But the gimmick caught on anyway.”

“‘We don’t shut down our economy because tens of thousands of people die on the highways,’ said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). ‘It’s a risk we accept so we can move about.’ President Trump also took up the bogus argument while deploying his trademark exaggeration, insisting that car-related deaths are ‘far greater than any numbers we’re talking about.'”

“In fact, cars kill about 40,000 people a year. Virus-related deaths hit 70,000 in only two months and are growing fast — and yet this comparison still doesn’t even take into account its disproportionate toll on health-care workers, nor the thousands of survivors who will suffer poor health for years, nor, oh yeah, the fact that car accidents aren’t contagious.”

According to the Johns Hopkins tracker, total deaths in the United States will likely surpass 80,000 sometime today.