U.S. Again Hits More Than 1,000 COVID-19 Deaths in a Single Day

This marks a return to the 1,000 deaths threshold and comes as Trump, who previously downplayed the virus, showed a noticeable shift in tone.

July 22, 2020

mask — Image via Getty/ Kseniya Ovchinnikova
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At least 1,000 deaths related to COVID-19 were reported in the U.S. on Tuesday.

That's according to the latest update to data compiled and analyzed by the team at the Washington Post, who added in their report that this marks the first time the U.S. has recorded more than 1,000 deaths since June 2.

Notably, these figures arrive as Trump—who's spent months downplaying the severity of the virus and leading his supporters into a frenzy of anti-mask recklessness—suddenly deemed the wearing of protective face coverings to be a "patriotic" act. He also changed course on the tone of his messaging about the virus' continued impact through 2020, telling reporters during his return to White House briefings on the topic that Americans should expect things to get worse.

"Some areas of the country [are] doing very well, others doing less well," Trump said on Tuesday. "It will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better. I don't like saying that, but that's the way it is."

Earlier this week, data on the CDC website and in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal included the estimate that the number of infections in the U.S. is actually as much as 10 times higher than the amount of currently confirmed cases.

At this point, if you're not wearing a mask when out in public, you're loudly announcing to everyone around you that you don't give a fuck about your own health or the health of those around you. In fact, you're effectively confirming that you'd rather buy into contrarian anti-intellectual conspiracies than possibly help protect your fellow humans. Do better.