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‘Trump Death Clock’ Counting ‘Avoidable’ COVID-19 Deaths Emerges In Times Square
By Mikelle Leow, 13 May 2020
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Image via lev radin / Shutterstock.com
The city that never sleeps has been kept awake by a newly-emerged billboard at Times Square claiming to count the number of COVID-19 deaths that could have been prevented if not for the United States’ delayed response to the virus.
The ‘Trump Death Clock’, created by filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, is reminiscent of the National Debt Clock. The counter started out as a website but is now also being displayed at the heart of New York.
Jarecki explained that while the Trump administration had been urged to take “immediate action” on the spread of COVID-19 in January 2020, the president only began enforcing social distancing measures and closing schools on 16 March.
The ‘Trump Death Clock’ website cites epidemiologists’ estimation detailing that had the government responded just a week before, on 9 March, 60-percent of American COVID-19 deaths would have been prevented.
The clock uses this formula to tally possible lives that could have been saved had the government reacted a week earlier. As of 13 May at 2am, the number of “avoidable” deaths in the US reached 49,717 out of 83,019 confirmed deaths.
[via Newsweek, cover image via lev radin / Shutterstock.com]
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