Pfizer Boosts Bid for Metsera Amid Intensifying Rivalry with Novo Nordisk in Obesity Drug Market 
Pfizer Secures $10 Billion Deal for Obesity Drug Developer Metsera, Outbids Novo Nordisk 
Bayer’s Stroke Drug Achieves Breakthrough Trial Results, Boosting Market Confidence 
Trump Administration Pressures Venezuela Power Brokers After Maduro’s Ouster 
UN Warns of Venezuela Instability After U.S. Capture of President Nicolas Maduro 
U.S. and Europe Advance Binding Security Guarantees for Ukraine After Paris Talks 
Maria Corina Machado Says She Has Not Spoken to Donald Trump Since October Amid Venezuela Crisis 
Novo Nordisk Stock Surges After FDA Approves Wegovy Pill for Weight Loss 
U.S., Ukraine Discuss Territorial Ideas as Peace Talks Continue 
FDA Names Tracy Beth Høeg as Acting CDER Director After Richard Pazdur Announces Retirement 
Canada Loses Measles-Free Status After Nearly 30 Years Amid Declining Vaccination Rates 
Sanofi to Acquire Dynavax in $2.2 Billion Deal to Strengthen Vaccines Portfolio 
U.S. Seizes Venezuela-Linked Oil Tankers as Trump Escalates Control Over Regional Energy Flows 
China’s Taiwan War Games Signal Political Pressure Amid Economic Strain 
On Sunday, President Donald Trump shared some startling statistics to the press. Even with stricter social distancing rules and other measures to counter the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could still end up dying due to the disease.
But the figure could have been higher. According to Trump, the COVID-19 death toll could reach more than 2 million if the government did nothing.
“You’re talking about 2.2 million deaths,” Donald Trump told reported on Sunday’s White House news conference. The figure is the estimated number of fatalities if no measures are taken to slow down the COVID-19’s spread, according to an Imperial College study.
But with his administration’s efforts, Trump is confident that the number could be drastically reduced. He will consider his team as having done a good job if COVID-19 deaths could be reduced to somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000.
“So 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 [thousand] and 200,000, we altogether have done a very good job,” Donald Trump said.
However, there are those who say that the estimates just prove the unpreparedness of the Trump administration in dealing with the pandemic. “But it’s also a horrifying number, in part, because much of it was likely preventable,” Vox senior correspondent German Lopez wrote. “If the US — including the Trump administration — had better prepared for pandemics, the country likely could have avoided ever talking about 100,000 to 200,000 deaths.”
The problem, according to one health expert, was that the U.S. government was too slow to act. “If we’d jumped into contract tracing and testing, social distancing, and health system preparedness as soon as we heard reports from China, we’d be in a very different situation now,” New York University epidemiologist Céline Gounder.
“So now 100,000 to 200,000 Americans are likely to die,” Lopez wrote. “Trump failed to prepare, then downplayed the coronavirus outbreak. Every step of the way, the Trump administration failed to take the threat of a pandemic seriously.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times also blamed the slow responses of the CDC, the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services. “Across the government, they said, three agencies responsible for detecting and combating threats like the coronavirus failed to prepare quickly enough,” the publication wrote. “Even as scientists looked at China and sounded alarms, none of the agencies’ directors conveyed the urgency required to spur a no-holds-barred defense.”
