America is by far the hardest hit country in the world, with more than 130,000 dead (File)
Washington:
On Wednesday, the United States approached three million confirmed cases of COVID-19, while President Donald Trump downplayed the risks posed by the pandemic and urged the reopening of schools.
The coronavirus is booming in several southern hotspots, including Texas, Florida, Louisiana and Arizona, while it has almost entirely retreated from its former epicenter in New York and the northeast.
Trump embarked on a morning gauze storm before a public meeting of his coronavirus task force, in which he called on students to return to their schools in the fall and attacked his own health agency.
“In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITHOUT PROBLEMS,” he said.
“The Dems think it would be politically bad for them if American schools open before the November elections, but it is important for children and families. May cut funding if not open!”
He added that he did not agree with the guidelines for reopening schools set out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and that he would “meet them !!!”
It is vital to send children back to school so that parents can return to manufacturing and other jobs that require their physical presence.
All of the countries mentioned by Trump have much smaller epidemics than the United States, while Sweden is considered by many public health experts to be a cautionary tale after avoiding blockages and experiencing a high death rate.
America is by far the hardest hit country in the world, with more than 130,000 deaths – even as the death rate has dropped from peaks recorded in the peak of late spring.
Younger population
In April and May, nearly 3,000 people died every day, while in recent days there were about 600.
Experts see several reasons for this fall.
These include much higher test levels to detect milder cases, a younger infected population, better treatments – and the lag time between infection and death in the sickest patients.
In terms of treatments, doctors have learned that placing patients with severe breathing problems on their stomachs, known as the “lying down” position, can lighten the load on their lungs.
They also use anticoagulants as a preventative to prevent the formation of potentially fatal clots in the lungs, brain and limbs; and the use of steroids like dexamethasone to reduce an abnormal autoimmune response that ravages organs.
Antiviral remdesivir, on the other hand, has been shown to reduce the length of hospital stays, but has so far not been shown to have a significant impact on mortality.
The epidemic in the United States has also become much younger, with the median age of new cases in Florida fluctuating in the mid-1930s, for example.
In the greater Phoenix region, the main center of contagion in Arizona, half are under 35 years of age.
These young people could in turn infect the elderly or the medically vulnerable, which would once again increase the death rate.
The US Department of Health has launched a surge testing campaign at several sites in the south to better track mild or asymptomatic cases.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
