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As the U.S. COVID-19 demise toll surpassed 350,000 Sunday, President Trump claimed the nation’s fatality rely toll was “far exaggerated,” an assertion that was shortly refuted by the nation’s high infectious-diseases professional.
“The deaths are real deaths,” Dr. Anthony Fauci mentioned in an ABC interview. “That’s not fake.”
Trump additionally recommended Sunday on Twitter that states, not the federal authorities, bore duty for a vaccine rollout lagging expectations. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti countered Trump’s assertion, saying states and municipalities had been denied essential assets to maneuver forward extra expeditiously.
“We have not been delivered what was promised at the national level,” Garcetti mentioned on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” The federal authorities, he added, “can’t tell the local governments and state governments to do something and not give us aid.”
As a dreaded surge of post-holiday infections started to materialize in California and in different U.S. hotspots, public well being specialists warned that the primary month of 2021 could possibly be even worse than December, which was the pandemic’s deadliest month so far.
“There’s no running away from the numbers,” Fauci mentioned on ABC’s “This Week.”
Separately, on NBC’s “Meet the Press, Fauci said: “It could and likely will get worse in the next couple of weeks, or at least maintain this very terribly high level of infections that we’re seeing.”
“We’re going to see the epidemic probably peak at some point this month,” concurred Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner below Trump who was interviewed on “Face the Nation.”
The United States has by far the world’s highest variety of confirmed infections, greater than 20 million, together with the best variety of reported deaths, which exceeded the awful threshold of 350,000 early Sunday, in response to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
California accounts for greater than 2 million infections and 26,500 deaths, with Southern California as an epicenter.
“We’re seeing a person every six seconds contract COVID-19 here in Los Angeles County,” Garcetti mentioned. The mayor attributed the surge to inhabitants density and unfold inside households. He warned that individuals with underlying circumstances accounted for a still-high however falling share of fatalities, suggesting that the danger to the overall inhabitants was rising.
“My message to everybody,” Garcetti mentioned, “is that this is not only going to come for somebody that you love — this is going to possibly come for you.”
The virus’ unrelenting unfold coincides with unprecedented political turmoil surrounding Trump’s refusal to simply accept his loss within the November election. The 117th Congress convened Sunday, however two incoming Republican members, together with Rep. David Valadao of Hanford, needed to keep away after testing optimistic for the coronavirus.
Another GOP congressman-elect, Luke Letlow of Louisiana, died at age 41 final week after falling ailing with COVID-19. His seat will likely be crammed in a particular election.
The convening of Congress got here three days earlier than lawmakers have been set to tally electoral faculty votes, normally a perfunctory job. Trump, who made an early return final week to the White House from his Mar-a-Lago resort, voiced contemporary encouragement Sunday for congressional allies searching for to impede the proceedings in a bid to overturn the election end result — an effort that has virtually no likelihood of stopping President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20.
The president additionally retweeted posts calling on his supporters to stage demonstrations within the capital because the congressional rely was happening. Last month, pro-Trump protests by far-right teams triggered scattered violence.
“I will be there,” Trump tweeted. “Historic day!”
In the weeks for the reason that election, Trump has not often talked about the coronavirus, besides within the context of his grievances about how the general public well being disaster is depicted in official studies and information tales. On Sunday, the president once more complained on Twitter about his authorities’s “ridiculous method of determination” for counting fatalities.
Trump’s surgeon common, Dr. Jerome Adams, nonetheless, instructed CNN’s “State of the Union” that “from a health perspective, I have no reason to doubt those numbers.”
Adams, who had projected 20 million U.S. vaccinations by the top of final month, acknowledged that the vaccine rollout had not gone as shortly as hoped, with solely about 4 million happening. But he expressed optimism that the tempo would quickly quicken.
“The good news is that we are seeing it quickly ramp up,” he mentioned, “thanks to our state partners.”
Fauci, who will likely be serving within the Biden administration, agreed that “we’re not where we want to be” within the pace on vaccinations however mentioned on NBC that that could possibly be circled this month.
“We’ve got to do much better,” he mentioned.
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