The United States on Sunday became the first country on Earth to report more than five million confirmed cases of COVID-19 - the largest number on the planet - even as California, Florida and Texas now have more than 500,000 cases apiece. The raging pandemic shows no signs of abating any time soon due to the neglect of president Donald Trump.
As of Saturday, the U.S. reported 5.2 million COVID-19 cases and 166,000 total deaths, based on Worldometer data. Of the total U.S. cases, California accounted for some 563,000; Florida, 533,000 and Texas, 510,000.
If these three states were independent countries, California would be the fifth most infected on Earth. Florida and Texas would be the seventh and eighth most infected. As for deaths, the top three states are New York (33,000), New Jersey (16,000) and California (10,000).
With only four percent of the world's population, the U.S. accounts for 26% of total cases and 23% of total deaths.
Medical experts affirm it took the U.S. 99 days to reach 1 million confirmed cases. It took all of 43 days to hit 2 million, 28 days to get to 3 million and a mere 15 days to surpass 4 million on July 23. Four million has skyrocketed to 5 million in only 17 days.
"This is such a sobering number," said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University.
"That's a huge number of cases and a very large number of hospitalizations and deaths - and more to come. Because over much of this country, this virus is spreading unimpeded because so many folks are not getting with the program to contain it."
Medical experts agree these horrific records reflect the worst public health failure in U.S. history. They also agree on the root cause of this unprecedented disaster: president Donald Trump's refusal to take the leadership role in fighting the pandemic while consistently downplaying the ill-effects of the disease on Americans.
Analysis shows that if the United States had the same per capita death rate as Australia, some 3,300 Americans would have died instead of the horrific 166,000. That this hasn't happened is because there is no federal plan for combating the pandemic.
It was revealed a few weeks ago that Trump back in April disapproved a national plan to mitigate the pandemic because the outbreak at the time was ravaging states such as New York and New Jersey controlled by Democrats.
The pandemic today, however, is taking a heavy toll as it explodes in Republican-controlled states such as Florida, Texas, Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, Montana and North Carolina. Blue or Democratic states such as New York have largely gotten their outbreak under control with the notable exception of California. The shoe is on the other foot and Trump still has no national plan in place.
