By July 29, 2020, there were more than 150,000 reported deaths from Covid-19 in the United States, significantly more Americans than died during World War I. Thousands of additional people were dying every day, with no sign of this horrific loss of life abating. America,
America weakened and dismantled institutions created to respond to pandemics. Covid-19 was not the first global pandemic in modern times. In 1918, the “Spanish flu” swept around the world, killing more than 600,000 people in the United States, which at the time had a population
The highest levels of government minimized the threat and spread misinformation. The Trump administration initially dismissed the pandemic as a hoax, compared it to the seasonal flu, asserted that the problem was under control, blamed rising case numbers on increased testing, and declared that one
A public health crisis was politicized in order to enhance the chances of a sitting President’s re-election. The administration repeatedly pressured state governments to re-open businesses and schools even when experts warned that it was too soon, and even when re-opening was contrary to guidelines
