"40% Fewer Deaths Possible... Trump Overlooked the Severity of COVID-19"

"President Trump Criticized for Spreading Conspiracy Theories and Ignoring Scientists' Opinions"
Concerns Over Overall Deterioration of US Public Infrastructure

Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump is delivering a farewell speech at a send-off event held on the runway of Andrews Joint Base in Maryland on the 20th of last month (local time).
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been criticized for downplaying the severity of COVID-19. A study suggests that if the response to COVID-19 had been different, the death toll could have been reduced by 40%.

On the 10th (local time), major foreign media such as the UK Guardian and The Washington Post (WP) reported that a committee analyzing the Trump administration's public and health policies published these findings in the medical journal The Lancet. The report states that former President Trump overlooked the seriousness of COVID-19, and that public health became vulnerable as the rate of health insurance enrollment among low-income groups decreased due to health insurance policy reforms. The Lancet committee, formed in April 2017, included 33 experts from the U.S., UK, and Canada in fields such as public health, law, medicine, labor unions, and indigenous communities.

Specifically, the analysis concluded that if the U.S. had responded to COVID-19 at the average level of the Group of Seven (G7) countries, the death toll would have been reduced by 160,000. Currently, the U.S. COVID-19 death toll has surpassed 470,000 and is expected to exceed 500,000 within weeks. The cumulative number of confirmed cases has reached 27 million. Both deaths and confirmed cases are the highest in the world.

The report criticized former President Trump for not taking the COVID-19 crisis seriously when it emerged, spreading conspiracy theories, and not encouraging mask-wearing. The Lancet also condemned him for ignoring scientists' calls to fully mobilize efforts to stop the virus spread.

The report also pointed out flaws in Trump's public health policies. Assuming that the U.S. life expectancy in 2018 was similar to the G7 average, it criticized that if the Trump administration's public health policies had been different, 461,000 deaths could have been prevented.

According to the Lancet committee, during the three years after Trump took office, the number of uninsured people increased by 2.3 million. By race, the health insurance enrollment rate among Latinos dropped by 1.6 percentage points (about 1.5 million people) between 2017 and 2018. Among Native Americans and Alaska Natives, it decreased by 2.8 percentage points. In contrast, the enrollment rate among Whites remained steady during the same period. Between 2016 and 2019, while Trump was in office, deaths due to environmental and occupational factors increased by about 22,000, reversing a previous downward trend. To address this, the report proposed measures such as reparations for Black Americans affected by slavery, tax increases on high-income earners, and reductions in defense spending.

The report stated, "The U.S. public health infrastructure was inadequately prepared, worsening the pandemic situation," and pointed out that "from 2002 to 2019, the U.S. public health budget fell from 3.21% to 2.45%, which is half the level of Canada and the UK."

Mary T. Bassett, director of the FXB Center at Harvard University and a participant in the study, told The Guardian in an interview, "The U.S. did not respond properly to the pandemic. However, this is not solely former President Trump's fault; social failures also contributed, so it cannot be resolved by vaccines alone."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.