Coronavirus infections are going up, BUT at the same time the death rate is going down. On July the 6th fewer than 1/11th as many Americans died as on the single peak day, May the 6th. From June the 20th (counting that day, a period of about 17 days ) until the time of posting the number of deaths was about 8200. In comparison, this number was well-surpassed in a mere 4 days from May 5-8. This is in spite a far higher total number of cases now.
This is for two reasons:
First, vulnerable populations (re: the elderly) are better insulated from infection now than they were 3 months ago. Of corona deaths so far I think maybe 2.5% were people under 45, but new infections are skewing younger.
Second, we're simply doing a better job of keeping people alive. The Trump administration enabled the stockpiling of both HCQ (which per a recent study might actually be useful in saving lives after all) ALONG WITH the more generally accepted remdesivir. Doctors are probably more experienced now also in handling coronavirus patients and I would assume there are fewer shortages for things like ventilators now.
Contrary to misconception, despite Trump denouncing widespread testing for self-motivated reasons the drop in reported deaths is actually not due to that. As of about 3 days ago the New York Times reported that the US performs about 600,000 tests a day, which is 5-6 times higher than a couple of months ago.
Over 130,000 have died but it wouldn't be fair to characterize us as "losing" against the virus either. Good news is legitimately beginning to emerge from this health crisis but there's a general reluctance to give airtime to such.
This is because there is, and presumably always has been within living memory, a "failed America" bias among narrative disseminating organs, where social and public ills that exist in the United States are given disproportionate attention compared to problems of a similar magnitude that exist elsewhere in the First World.
For example, Belgium has a population of about 11 and a half million, or a little over 1/30th ours. They've had 9,700 coronavirus deaths, which per capita would be equivalent to about 280,000 American COVID-19 fatalities (that is, more than double). However, there's scant coverage of Belgium, or other European countries which by certain measures have fared worse than the US. All focus has been on the proposal that America has "uniquely failed" compared to its peers in handling the virus, which is a half-truth at best.
Related is the "exceptional Europe" bias. Unlike Americans, who were castigated as dumb inbred rednecks for opposing shutdowns, Sweden's decision not to shut down at all was taken as an example of special Swedish wisdom, where their society was allegedly so utopian and their leaders so enlightened that doing something which would surely f*ck a country like America was seen as a good idea for them.
