Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 2017-2018 Flu Season in US

Photo credit: The AP via CDC

The coronavirus pandemic has now claimed more confirmed deaths than the 2017-2018 flu season did in the United States.

According to records from the CDC, in 2017-2018 the flu killed 61,099 people, the highest in the 2010s. Late last night, according to numbers tabulated by WorldoMeters, COVID-19 deaths in the US eclipsed that number, and now stands at a staggering 61,734.

There are 1,065,956 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States.

For months, the President has been downplaying COVID-19, its impact on the United States, and its seriousness as a virus. In March, President Trump specifically mentioned the seasonal flu, telling people to "think about" the fact that it kills tens of thousands of Americans a year.

So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020

The first coronavirus death came at the end of February. In two months, the total has climbed to more than half of one hundred thousand.

In the last week, the death toll from the coronavirus surpassed the number of American deaths in the Vietnam war and the 2017-2018 flu season. Also in the last seven days, new numbers confirmed that 30,000,000 million Americans had filed for unemployment in the last month and a half and the GDP contracted 4.8%.

In the same week, the President has boasted about his "ratings" during his press briefings and asked aloud if injecting disinfectants into your lungs would help cure an infected patient.