The 3 million mark was hit on July 8th
The 4 million mark was hit on July 23rd
The 5 million mark was hit on August 6th
And now, once again, another million milestone came today.

This has not been a good Summer.
The Fall has a potential to be even worse.

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August 27, 2020, 20:05 GMT
USA
6,032,004 Confirmed cases of COVID-19
184,362 American COVID Deaths

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Watching 4 days of the Republican political convention, I was appalled to see live crowds brought together with a total lack of proper social distancing or masks to stop the spread of COVID. Some call it a potential "super spreader" event. I also listened to days of lies and twisted truths. That included the premise that the current President has been the country’s great savior who has already put “the China virus” (to use his racist words), behind us. Convention speakers spoke as if the pandemic is over. However, truth is that the coronavirus pandemic is still continuing to thrive in the USA and to take more lives. Americans are continuing to die from COVID each day at the average of 1000 or more. Others are being left with lifelong health problems.

Although I have no desire to get involved in politics, I do wish that the US president would stop using the racist term “China Virus”. Such inflammatory rhetoric is beneath the office of any President of the United States. However, to use this president’s own quote - from when he responded to the fact that so many people have died from coronavirus - “It is what it is”. This president refuses to stop stoking racism and division. It is clear that he feels everything is all about “him". Breaking with two centuries of political tradition, Trump hasn’t ask Americans to place their trust in each other or in God, but rather, in him. He has repeatedly said, “I alone can fix it”. Truth, however, is that he has not ended the COVID pandemic in the USA. Instead, he seems to be trying to cover it up and/or to blame others. Many of his actions are helping to spread the pandemic in America… I find all of this unsettling.


Today, China (where the virus originated) has a grand total (since late December) of 85,000 total cases and 4,634 total deaths out of a country’s population of 1. 4 billion people or 18% of the world’s population. China’s statistics were something we Americans once thought to be horribly frightening. The statistics were frightening. Any out of control disease with loss of life really is horrible.

However, when the virus reached our shores, things got much worse than it ever has been for China. Today, China has more or less managed to bring the novel coronavirus outbreak reasonably under control. On the other hand, thanks the American president’s handling the pandemic crisis in this country, America hasn’t been able to even stabilize the rise in disease. America now has over 6 MILLION currently counted cases of COVID; plus more than 180 THOUSAND deaths out of a population 1.3 million. We have only about 4% of the planet’s population but over 25% of the planet’s COVID. This shouldn’t be!!! What has happened to the America in which I grew up?

Prior to COVID, America being a leader of death from disease would have been unimaginable. We are not a third world country!!! Unfortunately, our unsuccessful handling of coronavirus puts brings us down to the level of a third world county. I could say, this is "embarrassing." But the loss of lives is far more serious than mere embarrassment.

When all is said & done, China’s coronavirus situation (once horrifying) now pales by our own. So should we now call this disease “the United States virus”? Absolutely not!!! Although the US has merely 22% of China’s population; we now have almost 98% MORE reported COVID cases than China has in total. Plus the USA also has 97˝% MORE COVID deaths than China has recorded since January. Obviously, this is all a very poor reflection of how pandemic control has been handled in America. Even if China can be blamed for the origin of the COVID, it is not responsible for how our country has handled the pandemic. I love my country. But I'm starting to no longer recognize my country. We should be doing better than what is happening.

Unfortunately, our President, blaming someone else for EVERYTHING, is not going to bring those needlessly lost Americans back from the dead. Nor will his pointing fingers stop more Americans from continuing to die from this virus. This illness in America is now an American disease. Yes, it has been horrible that such a deadly new virus could originate anywhere in the world. Yes, someone in China shouldn’t have eaten a bat or whatever happened to start the pandemic. Yes, China should have been more open with the WHO when China first saw a problem. I’ve felt this way from the start last January: long before the novel coronavirus was named COVID or had reached our shores. China is not without blame for the origin of this disease. But China has nothing to do with how America is, or is not, coping with the situation we now face in our own country. Americans are responsible for their own destiny.

The goal for all now should be to stop this deadly virus everywhere in the world. Ignoring science won’t stop the virus. Those who are virus deniers are only enabling the spread. Although he can talk the talk when given a written speech to read, our current president’s actions sadly aren’t helping to spare so many of the American people more heartbreak and even needless death. He has proven himself a science denier and is taking a lot of America with him. Somehow, as a country, we Americans need to move forward to end this health crisis – not blindly ignore it & enable those-in-power’s political or other personal gain.

The reporting & release of hospitalization numbers are now controlled by the current political administration & not the CDC. Now, the CDC has also succumbed to the current president’s bullying.

If testing is down, counted cases will also be down. But that doesn’t mean actual cases will really be down. Community spread will probably be continuing. Rather than case numbers, Americans may now need to look more at the COVID death rate to get a true view of what is still happening in this country. Hospitalizations also should help tell the story. Hopefully those facts continue to reach the general public. Plus statistics on “long haulers” would help; if those are ever made available.

All hospital COVID data has now been shifted to go directly to the Trump administration to interpret (before release or not release) to the general public. So I’m not sure if those numbers (like the the # of actual cases resulting by not testing) can also be skewed or not. Because of the current US president’s wishes, doctors and scientists seem to be getting pushed out of the whole procedure. The release of hospital statistics have been notably slowed down nationally (like the US mail has) since the Trump administration changed the rules. Still, days to weeks after the number of cases (reported or unreported) rise or lower, hospitalization and death numbers will follow. Eliminating much of testing to find asymptomatic, active cases of coronavirus seems to be counterproductive for slowing COVID spread. Although you may not hear about them, undetected & unreported, active cases of COVID will continue to infect others. About 50% of the spread of COVID in the USA is from asymptomatic people.

It’s true that reducing testing will give the current President lower numbers that will make his response to COVID not look as bad as it actually has been. However, lower numbers on paper won’t save lives. Nor will it give America – as we knew it just 8 months ago – back to us. Like it or not, COVID is now a big part of life (and death) in America.

I’m a middle of the road, suburban, female voter. I’m not a political activist. I have no desire to be a political activist. I just want to be able to live out a normal, full life in a country that was (pre the current political climate) once considered the “greatest country on earth”. Instead, I am more or less now a prisoner in my home because politics seem to matter to those-in-charge more than people. I long for the days when people were more important than politics. I long for the time when Americans worked together and not against one and another. Pretending the virus is gone from America (or that it was never really a problem) is not the right or ethical thing to do by or for the American people. More Americans, than would otherwise, will die as a result. A lot more Americans!!! This should not be allowed to happen.

COVID should never become a political matter. It is a health pandemic that needs to be properly managed & brought under control. All Americans need to be valued and protected. We as Americans need to respect each other. We need to work together and to care about each other. People are more than statistics. All of us!!! Our lives should not be reduced to political pawns in a life & death game of COVID-19.

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My photo above is a faded hibiscus photographed today.
I did not feel that a fresh one fit the news...