How Trump and his acolytes created a crisis – then lost control of it

Future generations will wonder how the US response to Covid-19 became so politicised, writes Phil Thomas

Florida governor Ron DeSantis responds to a question during a press conference with Florida attorney general Ashley Moody in Orlando on Thursday (AP)

Headlines in the United States over the past two weeks have focused on the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Ida; meanwhile, the Covid crisis has continued to grind relentlessly on.

Last year saw plenty of optimistic predictions of when the pandemic would end – everything open by Easter, said Trump; all over by Christmas, we had hoped; the vaccines coming to the rescue finally at the turn of the year.

Now there is a sense of weary resignation when Anthony Fauci, the government’s infectious disease expert, suggests another 100,000 Americans dead by Christmas 2021 is “predictable but preventable”.