Maxine Waters: Coronavirus Is ‘Worsening’ and the GOP Is ‘Complicit’

Chairwomen Maxine Waters (D-CA) questions Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, during a Hous
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Hannah Knudsen

The Chinese coronavirus pandemic is “worsening” and the GOP is “complicit,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) declared on Tuesday.

“#COVID19 [coronavirus] is worsening! Infections are spiking across the country. The President has coronavirus & he’s probably infected dozens of people in his circle!” Waters exclaimed.

“Republicans in Congress, how can you remain silent? You’re complicit by ignoring the lack of leadership during this crisis!” she added:

Waters’ cautionary tweet comes as President Donald Trump continues to recover following last week’s coronavirus diagnosis. On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his previous message to the American people, instructing them not to allow the virus to dominate their lives.

“Don’t let it dominate. Don’t let it take over your lives; don’t let that happen,” Trump said. “We have the greatest country in the world”:

Trump added that Americans are learning to live with the reality of the virus, much like they already do with the flu.

“Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Are we going to close down our Country?” he asked.

“No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with [coronavirus], in most populations far less lethal!!!” he added:

Trump’s tweet followed an update from the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), estimating that over 765 million people worldwide, or roughly 10 percent of the population, have contracted the Wuhan virus.

“The 765 million infections exceed the number of confirmed cases tallied by the W.H.O. and Johns Hopkins University — standing at over 35.5 million as of Tuesday morning — by over 20 times,” as Breitbart News detailed.

The updated estimated numbers suggest that the fatality rate for the novel virus may be similar to that of the seasonal flu, as Breitbart News reported:

The roughly 1.039 million global deaths, per the W.H.O., coupled with the agency’s  “best” estimate for infections, suggests the infection fatality rate (IFR) stands at an estimated 0.135, or similar to the flu, much lower than previous estimates released before the lockdown.

Unlike the less accurate, but more widely used confirmed case fatality rate, the IFR takes into account asymptomatic and mild cases that do not make it into the hospital.

That means a lot more people are contracting the virus without dying than previously thought.

The U.S. Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) parameters in September, indicating a survival rate between 99.5 percent and 99.997 percent for those 69 and younger. The survival rate stands at 94.6 percent for those 70 and older:

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