Strangest and most grotesquely untrue statement of Donald Trump’s life

The US president chose, 100 days before the election, to make a claim that even his base won’t accept.

Donald Trump chose, 100 days before the election, to make surely the strangest and most grotesquely untrue statement of his life, when the US President told Fox TV’s Chris Wallace that the US has the lowest COVID-19 mortality rate in the world.

There have been a little over 600,000 COVID-19 deaths worldwide and nearly a quarter of them were Americans. How can that possibly be the world’s lowest COVID-19 death rate?

It can’t.

Trump has stepped up his attacks on Joe Biden.

He paints Biden as bordering on semi-senile, soft on China and a willing dupe of the Democratic Party’s activist left wing. Although Trump expresses them roughly, these are profitable lines of attack as there is a smidgen of truth in each.

But in the same Fox interview, Trump claimed the US had the lowest coronavirus death rate.

The most straightforward way of measuring novel coronavirus mortality rates is by COVID-19 deaths per million of population.

The US, at about 433, is well below numerous European nations such as Britain, Italy, Spain and Belgium.

But it is four times the rate of Germany, nearly double Canada and many, many times Australia.

Trump also says the surge in US infections is purely because of increased testing. But as Wallace pointed out, US testing was up 37 per cent, infections 194 per cent.

Trump momentarily held up a chart which he said supported his claim about US death rates. In fact the chart measured deaths per recorded case of COVID-19.

This is an almost meaningless measure as it depends on how many tests a country does.

If a country tests only those people who die, it gets an infection death rate of 100 per cent. If, like Australia, it tests huge numbers, it gets a much lower rate.

That’s why deaths per million of population is vastly the more important measure.

But even on deaths per infection, the US is nowhere near the lowest. People in the US can see the overflowing hospitals, how many are dying of COVID-19.

This nuttiness won’t wash even with Trump’s base. It’s a bad sign for him.