More than 42,500 Americans and counting have died from the Coronavirus outbreak, including over 1,800 deaths in the state of Massachusetts, whose newspaper the Boston Globe published a full 16 pages of death notices in its Sunday edition this past weekend. The precise number of the deaths that involved the Coronavirus is unclear, but a number of the notices did mention the disease. That staggering number of death notices comes as figures like President Donald Trump clamor to relax the Coronavirus-induced social distancing measures and reopen the economy, although doing so without a capability in place to mitigate the Coronavirus spread could prove even more deadly.
As CBS reports:
‘The print edition of the Boston Globe reflected the somber, unprecedented time we are living in. The paper published 16 pages worth of death notices on Sunday, as the number of coronavirus cases surged in Massachusetts and many other places around the world… Death notices are submitted to the Globe by funeral homes or the friends or family of the deceased. The Globe does not know how many of the death notices were coronavirus victims, but the paper noted that several of the deaths did mention a battle with COVID-19.’
There are 16 full pages of death notices in today's paper Globe. Last week, there were 12. Before that, I don't think I'd ever seen more than 4 or 5. Please continue to #stayhome if you can. #StayHomeSaveLives
— Joyce Linehan (@ashmont) April 19, 2020
The death notices that appeared in this past weekend’s edition of the Globe chronicled passings in a diverse array of locales, including California, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, Greece, Ireland, and Italy. The Sunday before this past weekend, the Globe’s print edition published 11 pages of death notices. The week before that, nine pages of death notices appeared in the same Globe edition.
15 pages of death notices in today’s @BostonGlobe. I’ve never seen that before. pic.twitter.com/Gu4KNIQbDz
— Delia (@DeliaCabe) April 19, 2020
Massachusetts is one of the hardest hit states in the U.S. amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. As of early Tuesday, they have the fourth most deaths of any individual state in the U.S., behind only New York, New Jersey, and Michigan. Massachusetts is one of a slew of Northeastern states that have signed onto a plan to coordinate their economic reopenings once social distancing measures can be eased out. Those involved in this intrastate pact and other similar agreements elsewhere in the U.S. will be working distinctly from whatever volatility happens to emerge from the White House.
Exclusive: Gov. Cuomo taps McKinsey to develop 'Trump-proof' economic reopening plan https://t.co/RD4AlSUq3K
— Laura Nahmias (@nahmias) April 16, 2020
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, a Democrat whose state is also a member of the Northeastern intrastate pact, commented:
‘It’s bipolar down there. We had a good constructive meeting with the vice president’s commission [but] then you hear the press conference of the president. You sometimes feel like the governors are being used as a campaign prop.’
Cuomo and 6 other East coast governors have hired McKinsey to develop a plan to help re-open the states, seeking to counter Trump's pressure to move rapidly.
An aide for New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said the goal is to "Trump-proof" the plan. https://t.co/ItjlO3cUqj
— Amy Siskind 🏳️🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) April 16, 2020
Some on the president’s team are simply working to ignore the president’s belligerence, the Daily Beast explains.
As the publication puts it:
‘Trump’s own aides and officials are aware that the president’s missives are at odds with the recommendations embraced by his top public-health experts. But rather than correct the record or even push back internally, they have tried to proceed as if the president didn’t just do what he had so clearly done.’
Recently, that behavior has even included the encouragement of protests against stay-at-home orders that have been issued around the country by governors following guidelines established by his own administration.
