Harvard researchers have calculated how many unnecessary deaths the Trump administration left behind

Professors at Harvard Medical School and the University of California at San Francisco looked at the numbers. They’re gruesome.

The Trump administration leaves a devastating health legacy far beyond COVID-19, according to a new study in The Lancet by 33 researchers, led by professors at Harvard Medical School and the University of California at San Francisco.

The report finds that the Trump administration’s health policies resulted in 461,000 unnecessary U.S. deaths annually—in addition to 40% of America’s COVID-19 deaths thus far, plus 22,000 avoidable deaths annually from environmental policies.

The authors paint a damning picture of Trump politics, concluding that he purposely sought struggling white voters, and then backed policies that threatened their health: He earned his largest 2016 electoral margins in counties with the county’s worst mortality statistics, with life expectancies averaging 2 years shorter than in counties where he lost. His policies overwhelmingly favored corporations and wealthy Americans. Continue reading.