President Donald Trump mentions the death toll from the national coronavirus counted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “Fake news” on Twitter Sunday.
This figure, counted by an agency in Trump’s own administration, passed 350,000 on Sunday as business continued to climb. Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, calls the president’s unfounded allegation ‘deeply disturbing’.
“In the first place, it’s not fake news. this is real news, ”Jha told CNN International at Rosemary Church early Monday morning. “This is probably an underestimation of the number of people who have died due to the pandemic in the United States.”
Since the onset of the outbreak, public health experts have stressed that the official death toll from coronavirus could be dramatically lower than the actual figure. A September study from the Boston University School of Public Health suggested that the count could have been 36% lower than the actual death toll at the time.
“His comments are so respectful to the families of the loved ones,” Jha said. “Their losses are not fake news. It’s just shocking to me that this is where our president is currently in his last days in office, and not only refusing responsibility, but that he’s really trying to erase the losses we’ve suffered over the past year. . ‘
Jha also discussed the country’s slow vaccination of vaccines, the possibility of a boom after the holidays and the future of the pandemic under Joe Biden’s presidency. Check out the full segment below:
Donald #Tromp falsely call the USA # COVID-19 death toll “fake news” and does not take responsibility for its mismanagement of the #coronavirus #pandemic – I get response from Dr. @ashishkjha & ask him why the US on its own is so far behind # COVID Vaccination goal of 20m by 1 January. pic.twitter.com/l3gFd4GOIa
– Rosemary Church (@rosemaryCNN) 4 January 2021
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