Trump, MAGA, and the GOP slashed Americans' life expectancy by 1.8 years
A National Vital Statistics Report released by the CDC reveals that from 2019 to 2020, American life expectancy declined by 1.8 years. The cause was COVID. But it did not have to be that bad. Had the Trump administration reacted with a sense of purpose and listened to the experts, COVID would still have been devastating, but the death rate — now 3,230 deaths per million people — would have been lower. And a non-political response would have prevented many of the 365,000 American deaths in 2020.
But America was cursed with an ignorant President who worried more about image than American lives. And, adding to the carnage, were Republican Governors and local politicians who made political hay out of denigrating sensible anti-pandemic policies. It was one more battle in the GOP’s 30-year anti-healthcare campaign.
When the GOP captured the White House, the Senate, and the House in 2016, the sadists celebrated — and dedicated themselves to dismantling Obamacare. But luckily for the people, they fumbled the ball at the five-yard line. And the Democratic retaking of the House thwarted further attempts by Republicans to kill Americans prematurely.
But then, in late 2019, a super-bug emerged in Wuhan China - and the Chinese authorities confirmed the first global case of COVID-19 in December. On January 22, 2020, the CDC reported the first case in the US. And on February 29, the authorities announced the first COVID death in America. The administration took the news in stride and mounted a well-conceived and brilliantly executed plan to defeat the threat. Just kidding, that is the ‘alternative facts’ version of COVID’s history.
In reality, the administration dithered as the pandemic dug in. Trump knowingly lied about the severity of the situation. On the day the first case was announced he declared,
"We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine."
On February 27, he claimed that COVID would soon be gone.
"It's going to disappear. One day — it's like a miracle — it will disappear,"
It did not. On April 3, when the CDC recommended mask-wearing, Trump’s endorsement of this measure was lukewarm.
"You can do it. You don't have to do it. I'm choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it, and that's OK. It may be good. Probably will. They're making a recommendation. It's only a recommendation,"
On May 19, he thought the high number of cases was a positive,
"When we have a lot of cases, I don't look at that as a bad thing. I look at that in a certain respect as being a good thing, because it means our testing is much better. So, if we were testing a million people instead of 14 million people, we would have far few cases, right?
"So, I view it as a badge of honor. Really, it's a badge of honor. It's a great tribute to the testing and all of the work that a lot of professionals have done."
On July 19, he opined that the high case count was unfair and downplayed the risk.
"Many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day. They have the sniffles, and we put it down as a test." He added that many of those sick "are going to get better very quickly."
On September 21, Trump still promoted the idea that COVID exclusively killed the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions.
"It affects elderly people, elderly people with heart problems, if they have other problems, that's what it really affects, that's it. In some states thousands of people — nobody young — below the age of 18, like nobody — they have a strong immune system — who knows?"
"Take your hat off to the young because they have a hell of an immune system. It affects virtually nobody. It's an amazing thing — by the way, open your schools!"
However, as asinine as this drivel was, it takes second place to Trump’s infamous stream-of-consciousness musings on potential COVID cures. On April 23, Trump offered this surreal medical advice.
“A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it.
And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that, too. It sounds interesting.
And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”
In fairness, Trump did push for the development of a vaccine. But once it was available, he failed to promote it because it was political poison for his base. A mark of superior leadership is that you tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. On that score, as on so many others, Trump failed.
But he did not kill Americans by himself. Republican politicians as a whole piled on. Just today, Ron DeSantis said of Dr. Fauci,
“I think he’s done a lot of damage. I think he should have been gone long ago. And if you think about what he’s done with his arrogance, that’s part of the reason why he’s advocated policies that have been so destructive. He thinks people who disagree with him are somehow beneath him.”
The man must have been looking in a mirror. Florida ranks 14th highest in COVID death rate and 6th in case rate. DeSantis created this dismal performance because he acted like the Mayor of Amity in Jaws.
The GOP kills people.