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UrduThe final presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, moderated by Kristen Welker in Nashville occurred on October 22, 2020. Similar to the positive message he’s been saying in his campaign speeches, President Trump said, “We are rounding the corner,” when referencing the coronavirus pandemic that has has ravaged the U.S. with over 8 million cases, and over 221,000 confirmed deaths (as of Oct. 22, 2020). “We’re rounding the turn,” Trump said during the debate. This implies a meaningful improvement. We rate this claim as false. On that very same day the U.S. recorded 77,000 new cases, according to NBC News. This tops the previous high that had been set in July. We may be learning to “live with it,” as Trump mentioned, but this is not an improvement.
Hospitalizations today are lower than in previous spikes, but in the past few weeks, there has been a modest increase. The positivity rate, which measures what percentage of tests come up positive for the virus, is also going up again during the past few weeks. Higher positivity rates are an indicator of community spread.
The one encouraging change is that, since a peak in August, deaths have fallen fairly consistently, due to a combination of factors, including improved understanding of how to treat the disease. Yet deaths have settled in at about 800 a day, keeping total deaths per week in the United States above normal levels.
‘Rounding the turn.’ Trump also once again claimed that “we’re rounding the turn” on the pandemic. Data, however, show that COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are increasing — and experts, such as National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, have warned that the pandemic is far from over.
Numbers from the COVID Tracking Project show that as of Oct. 22, more than 61,000 new cases are being reported each day, on average for the past seven days. That’s up from a mid-September lull of 34,000 cases per day — and is approaching the earlier peak in mid-July.
While more tests are being done now than earlier in the summer, the percentage of tests that are coming back positive is now increasing, which is indicative of outbreaks worsening. And not only are cases up, but as the COVID Tracking Project’s weekly update from Oct. 22 notes, so too are hospitalizations and deaths.
Those lines of evidence refute Trump’s claim that testing — which he called “the best testing in the world by far” — is “why we have so many cases.” Extensive testing will identify more cases, but only if those infections exist. Trump made the same false argument over the summer.
