Trump rallies caused 700 COVID-19 deaths: Study

A study shows that US President Donald Trump’s many campaign rallies have caused more than 30,000 additional cases of the coronavirus as well as more than 700 extra deaths.

According to a team of researcher at Stanford University, if those events, which Trump referred to as “fun,” “wonderful,” and “the Greatest Show on Earth,” had not been held, the casualties would not have occurred.

Most Trump supporters who were present at those rallies did not follow guidelines recommended by health experts such as social distancing and wearing mask faces.

Additionally, the extra cases and deaths almost definitely reached beyond the Trump supporters who attended the rallies, rippling outward to affect many others in their towns and cities, the study authors believe.

“The communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death,” indicated the study conducted by economist B. Douglas Bernheim.

In order to ascertain whether the Trump rallies really have served as super-spreading events, Bernheim and his colleagues studied 18 campaign rallies held between June 20 and Sept. 22. Three of those rallies were held indoors, which added the risk of virus transmission.

This comes as the United States faces a record surge of COVID-19 cases when well over 90,000 people tested positive on Thursday, pushing hospitals to the brink of capacity.

As of Oct. 31, 9,201,508 million cases have been found in the US, based on NBC News' count with 232,183 deaths reported so far.

The US president, whose administration has been under serious criticism over its mismanagement of the pandemic, stated back in July that he would not order Americans to wear face masks, while his top health officials encouarged the public to do otherwise.

Republicans, many of whom regard calls for people to wear masks as an affront to their liberty, have made this issue politicized in the country.

Democrats, nevertheless, including presidential nominee for the Nov. 3 election Joe Biden, have levelled criticism at Trump over his idiotic approach to the pandemic.

On Saturday, Biden spokesman Andrew Gates announced that the latest study supports Democrats’ charge that Trump’s campaign rallies have been “super-spreader rallies that only serve his own ego.”

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