1. Trump keeps lying about *everything* related to Covid. Here's a handy guide showing his response to the pandemic has been a world-leading catastrophe

Total new cases, yesterday:
Spain: 3,092
France: 1,346
Japan: 1,323
Germany: 1,012
Canada: 513
UK: 880
Italy: 379

US: 70,904

2. No, it's not due to population. Here are those numbers, scaled up to a US population size of 328 million:

Spain: 21,582
France: 6,581
Japan: 3,426
Germany: 3,997
Canada: 4,473
UK: 4,330
Italy: 2,058

US: 70,904

The US is even 3.3x worse than the *worst* comparable country.

3. So, here is how much worse the US new case counts are, adjusted for population:

Spain: 3.3x
France: 10.7x
Japan: 20.7x
Germany: 17.7x
Canada: 15.9x
UK: 16.4x
Italy: 34.5x

Remember how Italy was the nightmare? There are now 34.5 US new cases for every Italian one.

4. No, it's not due to testing. The UK has done *more* testing than the US per capita. Spain has done about the same amount. Other countries, like Italy, now do fewer tests because there's not demand. (New Zealand, for example, does very few tests because NZ eliminated the virus)

5. No, it's not due to land area. Yes, the US is bigger. But lower population density *reduces* spread. Here's people per sq. mile:

Spain: 240
France: 319
Japan: 863
Germany: 603
Canada: 10
UK: 725
Italy: 518

US: 87

The US has a major advantage here, but way more new cases.

6. Trump systematically downplayed the threat of the virus, despite way more warning than most countries (notably those in Europe). But other countries had a full lockdown, stuck with it, didn't hawk unproven drugs, didn't politicize masks, didn't attack public health experts.

7. Other countries re-opened because the virus was largely contained. Some, like Spain, are now seeing increased case loads. Others, like the UK, are implementing local lockdowns or preventive measures to keep it contained. But many Republican-led parts of the US simply gave up.

8. I hope journalists who question Trump memorize these numbers and the comparisons. It's a disservice to public health that so many millions of Americans wrongly believe the current US Covid experience was inevitable. It wasn't. It was a choice made by an incompetent president.