# COVID-19 pandemic deaths

Quotes about the COVID-19 pandemic deaths.

## Quotes

* So what? I'm sorry. What do you want me to do? My name's Messiah, but I can't work miracles.
** Jair Bolsonaro, in Brasília, on 28 April 2020, after being told by reporters that Brazil had achieved a record 474 COVID-19-related deaths in a day. 'So what?': Bolsonaro shrugs off Brazil's rising coronavirus death toll. The Guardian (29 April 2020).
* It's embarrassing for the country that led on so much of the science around immunology, virology, and vaccinology, to have stumbled in vaccine implementation and rollout to its population. And it's just really terrible to think that so many of those deaths were completely preventable.
** Helen Chu in “800,000 Americans have died of COVID. Now the U.S. braces for an omicron-fueled spike”, by Bill Chappell, “Coronavirus Updates”, NPR, (December 14, 2021)
* Herd immunity, protect the economy, and if that means some pensioners die, too bad.
** Dominic Cummings, senior adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaking about pandemics containment strategy in the United Kingdom on a government meeting. Coronavirus: ten days that shook Britain — and changed the nation for ever, 22 March 2020.
* The debate over COVID's mortality rate hinges on what counts as a COVID-19 death. Gandhi and other researchers argue that the daily death toll attributed to COVID is exaggerated because many deaths blamed on the disease are actually from other causes. Some of the people who died for other reasons happened to also test positive for the coronavirus. "We are now seeing consistently that more than 70% of our COVID hospitalizations are in that category," says Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease specialist at the Tufts Medical Center and a professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine. "If you're counting them all as hospitalizations, and then those people die and you count them all as COVID deaths, you are pretty dramatically overcounting." If deaths were classified more accurately, then the daily death toll would be closer to the toll the flu takes during a typical season, Doron says. If this is true, the odds of a person dying if they get a COVID infection — what's called the case fatality rate — would be about the same as the flu now, which is estimated to be around 0.1%, or perhaps even lower.
** Shira Doron as quoted by Rob Stein, “Scientists debate how lethal COVID is. Some say it's now less risky than flu”, NPR, (September 16, 2022)
* Fauci argues that it's difficult to distinguish between deaths that are caused "because of" COVID and those "with" COVID. The disease has been found to put stress on many systems of the body. "What's the difference with someone who has mild congestive heart failure, goes into the hospital and gets COVID, and then dies from profound congestive heart failure?" he asks. "Is that with COVID or because of COVID? COVID certainly contributed to it."
** Anthony Fauci as quoted by Rob Stein, “Scientists debate how lethal COVID is. Some say it's now less risky than flu”, NPR, (September 16, 2022)
* Number of people in the US under the age of 18: 74.2 million. Number of people in the US under the age of 18 who have died of COVID since the pandemic began: 361.
** Glenn Greenwald, Twitter, 4:55 AM · Aug 26, 2021
* Ireland now has the highest number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 since March, despite over 91% of the population over-12 being vaccinated – the highest jab rate in the EU.
** Highest Covid Numbers in Hospital since March despite 91%+ Jabbed, Ript, 27 October 2021
* And as the United States and other rich nations race to vaccinate their populations, new hot spots have emerged in parts of Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The global pace of deaths is accelerating, too. After the coronavirus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the pandemic claimed a million lives in nine months. It took another four months to kill its second million, and just three months to kill a million more. “We are running out of space,” Mohammed Shamin, a gravedigger in New Delhi’s largest Muslim cemetery, said on Saturday. “If we don’t get more space, you will soon see dead bodies rotting in the streets.”
** Mike Ives, Sameer Yasir and Muktita Suhartono, ”As Covid Death Toll Passes 3 Million, a Weary World Takes Stock”, New York Times, (April 17, 2021)
* A South American country, a cult leader, a drug and the deaths of thousands of fanatic followers may sound like the tragic story of the Jonestown Massacre. But these details could just as well serve as the introduction to another devastating chapter in Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's administration, as he leads Brazil into chaos amid the coronavirus pandemic. The eerie parallels between the Rev. Jim Jones and Bolsonaro recall the old adage that history repeats itself — first as tragedy, then as farce. [...] As Brazil's COVID-19 death toll surpasses 600, Bolsonaro is doubling down on his manipulation tactics and motivates his followers to go out in the streets to protest against isolation measures. This brings his own "necropolitics" to a whole new level — in which his political actions are also centralized on the large scale production of the death of his own base — thus setting the stage for a tragedy greater than Jonestown.
** David Nemer, Is Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's right-wing president, the new Jim Jones? (April 8, 2020), Salon
* Among older adults, the median age of COVID-19 deaths has "dropped precipitously," Osterholm said, especially when vaccination status is taken into account. "One of the things that I find troubling is the fact that people often write off [the death toll] as just, 'This is a bunch of old people,' " Osterholm said.
** Michael Osterholm as quoted by Bill Chappell, “800,000 Americans have died of COVID. Now the U.S. braces for an omicron-fueled spike”, “Coronavirus Updates”, NPR, (December 14, 2021)
* According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the current "best estimate" for the fatality rate among Americans with COVID-19 symptoms is 0.4 percent. The CDC also estimates that 35 percent of people infected by the COVID-19 virus never develop symptoms.
** Jacob Sullum, The CDC's New 'Best Estimate' Implies a COVID-19 Infection Fatality Rate Below 0.3%, Reason, 24 May 2020
* I just want to reiterate, because a lot of people have been asking, well, what would have happened if we did nothing? Did nothing, we just rode it out, and I’ve been asking that question to Tony and Deborah, and they’ve been talking to me about it for a long time, other people have been asking that question, and I think we got our most accurate study today, or certainly most comprehensive. Think of the number, potentially, 2.2 million people if we did nothing. If we didn’t do the distancing, if we didn’t do all of the things that we’re doing. When you hear those numbers, you start to realize that, with the kind of work we went through last week, with the $2.2 trillion, it no longer sounds like a lot, right? You’re talking about, when I heard the number today, first time I’ve heard that number, because I’ve been asking the same question that some people have been asking, I felt even better about what we did last week with the $2.2 trillion, because you’re talking about a potential of up to 2.2 million, and some people said it could even be higher than that. So you’re talking about 2.2 million deaths. 2.2 million people from this. If we can hold that down as we’re saying, to 100,000, it’s a horrible number. Maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100 and 200,000, we altogether have done a very good job. 2.2, up to 2.2 million deaths and maybe even beyond that? I’m feeling very good about what we did last week.
** Donald Trump on the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Coronavirus Task Force Briefing, March 29, 2020, transcript online at Rev
* We’re working to ensure that the supplies are delivered where and when they’re needed, and in some cases, we’re telling governors we can’t go there because we don’t think you need it and we think someplace else needs it. And pretty much, so far, we’ve been right about that. And we’ll continue to do it. As it really gets — this will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week. And there’ll be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn’t done. But there will be death.
** Donald Trump, as quoted in Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing (April 4, 2020), whitehouse.gov

## See also

* Coronavirus disease 2019
* Coronavirus recession
* COVID-19 pandemic
* COVID-19 testing
* COVID-19 vaccine
* Disease X
* Evacuations related to the COVID-19 pandemic
* Hydroxychloroquine
* Management of COVID-19
* SARS-CoV-2
* Shortages related to the COVID-19 pandemic
* Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic