Yale prof promotes 'Trump death clock,' says COVID-19 'getting awfully close to genocide'

A Yale epidemiologist says the “mass death” that has occurred in the U.S. amid the coronavirus pandemic is “awfully close to genocide.”

Yale University Assistant Professor of Epidemiology Gregg Gonsalves tweeted Wednesday, “So, what does it mean to let thousands die by negligence, omission, failure to act, in a legal sense under international law?”

Gonsales then asked whether U.S. leaders could be “held responsible under international law.” 

”And I am being serious here: what is happening in the US is purposeful, considered negligence, omission, failure to act by our leaders. Can they be held responsible under international law?”

”How many people will die this summer, before Election Day?” he added. “What proportion of the deaths will be among African-Americans, Latinos, other people of color? This is getting awfully close to genocide by default. What else do you call mass death by public policy?”

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The COVID-19 death rate among African Americans and Hispanic Americans has been higher than among white Americans, which many experts have attributed to the fact that more African Americans and Hispanic Americans are “essential workers,” and are therefore exposed to the virus more often. 

Gonsales didn’t specifically assign blame to President Donald Trump or Republicans in his Wednesday tweets. However, on Tuesday, he tweeted that Trump “deserves [a] lot of the blame for the catastrophe that #COVID19 is in the US,” but also assigned blame to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her “surrender to the GOP.” 

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”@realDonaldTrump deserves [a] lot of blame for the catastrophe that #COVID19 is in the US, but it’s also @SpeakerPelosi’s lack of vision, small-bore solutions & pre-emptive surrender to the @GOP makes things worse. If @TheDemocrats won’t fight now for real change, will they ever?” Gonsales tweeted.

.@realDonaldTrump deserves lot of blame for the catastrophe that #COVID19 is in the US, but it’s also @SpeakerPelosi ‘s lack of vision, small-bore solutions & pre-emptive surrender to the @GOP makes things worse. If @TheDemocrats won’t fight now for real change, will they ever?

On Thursday morning, Gonsalves shared the “Trump death clock,” which explains that “in January 2020, the Trump administration was advised that immediate action was required to stop the spread of COVID-19. According to NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, ‘there was a lot of pushback’ to this advice. President Trump declined to act until March 16th. Epidemiologists now estimate that, had mitigation measures been implemented one week earlier, 60 percent of American COVID-19 deaths would have been avoided.” 

Gonsalves did not respond to Campus Reform in time for publication. 

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