COVID Criminal

Who is responsible for hundreds of thousands of COVID deaths because of misinformation, politicization, and sheer negligence?

While Republicans were attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci yesterday in their theatre disguised as a Senate hearing, they were overlooking that, thanks to the Trump regime, measles has made a huge comeback in this country.

This month, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had logged 2,318 cases of measles thus far in 2026, which meant it was the worst year for measles in more than three decades. Since 2000, the largest single outbreak in the United States has been the 2025–2026 South Carolina measles outbreak with 997 total cases as of April 2026.

There is concern that the World Health Organization (WHO) may rescind the US's measles elimination status, which was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 by the WHO due to the success of vaccination efforts.

This is thanks to the vaccine skepticism from the Trump regime, led by Secretary of Health (HaHa) RFK Jr.

But yesterday, Republicans were blaming Dr. Fauci for deaths caused by COVID. Never mind that they are living through the Trump administration's negligence again when it comes to outbreaks.

When COVID hit the United States in early 2020, Trump dismissed it. He told us it was going to go away. He later admitted to Bob Woodward that he played it down. Yesterday, he boasted that he ignored advice from Dr. Anthony Fauci during the pandemic; Trump caught COVID because he ignored Dr. Fauci's advice.

In May 2020, he claimed that “with or without a vaccine, it's going to pass, and we're going to be back to normal.” He banned travel from China, but not for American citizens, and was much slower to ban travel from Europe. It's almost as if he thought COVID was as racist as he was. At one point, he referred to the virus as the Wuhan virus.

During the pandemic, Trump endorsed alternative treatments for COVID, like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, which medical experts will tell you do not work for COVID. Neither does bleach, as Trump suggested putting disinfectant into people’s bodies to combat COVID.

In 2018, National Security Advisor John Bolton disbanded the White House National Security Council’s Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense.

The Trump regime also failed to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile of medical equipment, such as respirators and N95 respirator masks. During the pandemic, Trump shrugged off responsibility for getting medical supplies to the states.

During an April 2020 White House briefing, Trump's stupid son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said that the federal emergency reserve of medical equipment was "our stockpile" and "not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use." It should also be noted that while scientists were leaving the federal government because of Donald Trump, he was hiring people like a stupid son-in-law.

COVID vaccines were developed during Trump's term in 2020, but they did not put together a plan for federal rollout of the vaccine, leaving it to the states and the incoming Biden administration to figure it out. Not surprisingly, no one in the Biden administration called Jared Kushner to ask for his advice.

Over 400,000 people died from COVID during Trump's term, and approximately 713,000 during Biden's presidency. Trumpers point to this as proof that Trump was better at handling COVID, ignoring that Biden inherited an upward trajectory caused by Trump, and that COVID existed during a longer timeframe under Biden than Trump.

A report by Columbia University Earth Institute’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness entitled “130,000 – 210,000 Avoidable COVID-19 Deaths — and Counting — in the U.S.,” compares the US death toll and policy response to six similarly high-income countries: South Korea, Japan, Germany, Australia, France, and Canada.

The report suggests that if the United States had followed similar policies and protocols as the six nations, such as building sufficient testing capabilities, enacting earlier lockdowns, issuing a national mask-wearing mandate, providing federal guidance on social distancing, and maybe not politicizing it and scaring people away from social distancing and wearing face masks, it could have avoided at least 130,000 and potentially as many as 210,000 COVID-19 deaths.

Basically, due to the shitty response and handling by the Trump regime, Donald Trump caused over 200,000 deaths from COVID. Donald Trump proved that he is not a president we want during a crisis, yet for some reason, this country reelected him in 2024. Oh yeah, that reason is that America is racist.

America needs to remember how horrible Donald Trump was during the pandemic, though right now, Trump is trying to distract us from the Epstein files and his botching of his chosen war with Iran by attacking Dr. Fauci and blaming him for his failures with handling the pandemic.

Even today, Trump does not make a lot of noise about the vaccine being developed during his term because there are too many conspiracy theories and skepticism about vaccines within his base. And this brings us back to the measles resurgence. This is something that affects smaller and more rural communities, where people tend to vote more for Republicans. Basically, if a child's parents are stupid and vote for Donald Trump, that child is at a greater risk of dying.

Who are Republicans going to blame next time? They can't blame Dr. Fauci, because he's retired, but then again, they're still blaming Joe Biden for everything. I know that they will never hold Trump accountable for the hundreds of thousands of people whose deaths he caused.

There are 96 days until the midterms.

Creative note: Thank you, Sukie. I saw some data at a Washington Post link that I wanted to read for this blog. Knowing that she still has a subscription to the Post, I asked her to send me a copy of the story.

Rat note: No, Peezy is not going on a holiday. When most people think of a city infested with rats, they usually think of New York City. And I am sure because of its size that NYC does have more, but if you ever walk on the sidewalks of Washington, DC at night, you may be surprised at how many rats you see.

I have stayed at Club Quarters several times in DC, and I have never walked in that neighborhood around Farragut Square without seeing several rats. I was walking with a group that included fellow cartoonist Matt Wuerker through the Square a couple of years ago, and some in the group commented on the number of rats they were seeing.

One night after the Herblock awards, I believe it was the year that Lalo won, I was walking with a group to a bar, and after I had already seen about 15 rats, Rob Rogers spoke up and said, did anyone just see that rat?

Speaking of Lalo, two years ago, the night before the Herblock awards, we met up in a bar near the Capitol, and in the middle of drinks, Lalo spoke up and said I just saw a rat run through the bar. The bartender said that's impossible, but I knew it wasn't. I know Lalo saw the rat.

So when I draw Peezy in a bar, especially in DC, it's not inaccurate that he would be in a bar. I can think of several bars in Fredericksburg where you will see all sorts of vermin, and I'm not just talking about the clientele.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

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