COVID19 Update - Day 260

US Tests: 160,710,709*

US Cases: 12,581,085*

US Deaths: 253,211*

Worldwide Cases: 60,258,815*

Worldwide Deaths: 1,418,610*

* - Numbers are a lower bound.  True numbers are being suppressed by the Trump administration

On a day when the U.S. recorded nearly 2,500 new #TrumpVirus deaths, let's try for hope instead of fear:

“There is real hope, tangible hope. So hang on. Don’t let yourself surrender to the fatigue,” Biden said in an address from Wilmington, Delaware, lauding the emergence of promising COVID-19 vaccines poised for distribution. He urged Americans to be vigilant in observing guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to combat the spread of the coronavirus over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The message — mask-wearing and social-distancing, were not new — and yet President Trump who has bunkered strongly since his electoral defeat has remained largely silent in his leadership on curbing the virus even as coronavirus deaths have topped more than a quarter-million in the U.S.

“America is not going to lose this war. You will get your lives back. Life is going to return to normal,” Biden said.

The incoming President offered a thinly-veiled criticism of President Trump’s pandemic response, suggesting that none of the science-driven guidance that would be put forward in the coming months as he takes his place in the White House would take sides in a partisan fight. 

“None of these steps we’re asking people to take are political statements,” Biden said. “Every one of them is based in science.”

The comments which were consistent with remarks the President-elect made after he was declared the projected winner of the presidential election on Nov. 7, when he said that he would “marshal the forces of science” to battle the coronavirus pandemic. At that time he vowed to make a national pandemic response his top priority even before he is inaugurated as President.

The remarks on Wednesday were a sharp departure from President Donald Trump’s continuous efforts to undermine the wisdom of scientists and health experts within his own administration with regard to battling the coronavirus pandemic.

It's easy to look at Biden's speech, check the calendar, and conclude that anything he does will be too little, too late.  But the more optimistic view is that a president who takes the pandemic seriously is FAR better than one who suggested injecting disinfectant into the lungs.