U.S. to confront 'rude awakening' with COVID-19 with death toll over 200,000: The Guardian

With its COVID-19 death toll at an astounding 200,000 and autumn in sight, the United States is in for a "rude awakening," with no change in its approach to containing the pandemic as new cases continue to run at about 35,000 per day, according to a recent report by The Guardian.

It was shockingly less than four months the country's death count has doubled again after the alarming level of 100,000 deaths was struck by the end of May. What's worse, colder weather could force more people to stay indoors, which could facilitate the spread of the virus, the report said.

"We're on track to have a quarter-million dead Americans by the end of the year with absolutely no reason it had to happen," said Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development.

"It was all preventable. So yes, this is a leadership failure of astounding proportions," Konyndyk was quoted as saying.

Back in March, Konyndyk told The Guardian that Washington's response to COVID-19 was "one of the greatest failures of basic governance in modern times." With an astonishing death toll of over 200,000, Konyndyk said his previous judgement "has borne out extremely well."

The report concluded five main reasons behind the Trump administration's devastating failure in handling the pandemic, which include dire shortages of protective gear nationwide, inadequate testing for COVID-19 due to U.S. President Donald Trump's resistance, the president's fatally misleading messaging on the pandemic, worrisome racial disparities on COVID-19 fatalities, and Trump's use of the prospect of a vaccine as an electoral tool.