Coronavirus is now the American virus

As deaths and infections mount, our historic failure to stop the outbreak will become a dark lesson

The United States now has the highest number of coronavirus infections of any nation on the planet, The New York Times reports. Johns Hopkins’ tracker agrees. We now know for sure that our country’s response to the pandemic is a spectacular failure that has been exacerbated by an incompetent president who spent years sabotaging the government’s ability to respond to the current crisis.

The World Health Organization may soon declare that the US is the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. This outcome was never predetermined; even a Texas-based grocery chain outsmarted the US government with its own preparations for the disaster by following the obvious warning signs. The Verge‘s T.C. Sottek reported.

Related: U.S. virus deaths could reach 200,000, Fauci warns

As of March 30th, the US has the most confirmed cases worldwide – more than 139,700, with over 2,400 deaths, according to a CNN count and the spread of the virus continues to accelerate across the country.

Governors faced with mounting infections and deaths are begging for help, especially in New York, where cases are expected to overwhelm hospitals within days. Meanwhile, President Trump has suggested the country ought to get back to work by Easter, the governor of Mississippi is overturning social restrictions by local officials, and the lieutenant governor of Texas suggests our grandparents ought to die to restart the economy. America has failed to mount a coordinated and decisive response to save itself.

According to CNN, The US President Donald Trump extended social distancing guidelines to April 30. Trump said modeling shows that the peak of the death rate will likely hit in two weeks.

We don’t need to know how bad it’s going to get to see America’s unique failure to act. Future generations can look to the history we’ve already made as a warning about what not to do when faced with an outbreak.

President Trump once said that when he was elected we would win so much that we’d be sick of winning. As America leads the world in infections, we’re not sick of winning — we’re sick from it.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 721,000 people worldwide and killed over 33,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Reporting by T.C. Sottek