Donald Trump said in a rally last night that the coronavirus, “Affects virtually nobody.” Apparently “virtually nobody” means 200,000 dead Americans, ranging in age from the elderly to infants.

Apparently he hasn’t noticed the damage his lack of coronavirus response policy has done to our economy, and that tens of millions of people have lost their jobs and health insurance, and are on the verge of evection, homelessness, and disaster.

Apparently he hasn’t noticed how the coronavirus is affecting the Americans who have had the disease and are suffering long-term heart, lung, and brain damage.

Apparently he hasn’t noticed all the people at high risk of death and serious disability who are sheltering in place, including people with asthma, heart disease, diabetes, obesity – 40% of the American population – and people over 50.

Apparently he hasn’t noticed that countries that took this virus seriously have only a few dozen, or at the most a few hundred deaths, while we are moving toward a quarter million people dead within a month or so.

Apparently he hasn’t noticed that the herd immunity strategy has not worked well in countries like Brazil, and that if he continues to pursue a herd immunity strategy for America it means as many as 6 million dead Americans.

Apparently he hasn’t noticed that neither Taiwan nor Japan ever shut down their economies and the Taiwanese economy is actually growing, because in both cases the countries based their response to the virus on nationwide mask-wearing and a testing and contact tracing strategy.

Apparently Trump never noticed that Anthony Fauci, the United State’s top infectious diseases expert, warned today that the country is “entering into a risk period” for rising coronavirus infections as autumn begins.

The one thing he definitely appears to have noticed is that this virus most easily kills elderly Social Security voters and Black and Brown people.

And to that end it appears he is trying to spread the virus as far and wide as possible. We should call this today what history will call it when it looks back upon this moment: genocide.

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Thom Hartmann

Originally published on Common Dreams as Trump “Never Noticed” a Modern-Day American Genocide

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