Democratic nominee Joe Biden this weekend had another “largely factual” incident.
Speaking Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia, the former vice president said 200 million people “have died” from COVID-19 “probably by the time I finish this talk.” Whether he meant that 200 million have died already or that 200 million were expected to die during his address is unclear. What is clear is that Biden said the COVID-19 death toll in the United States is somewhere in the millions. It is not.
“If Donald Trump has his way,” Biden said, “the complications from COVID-19, which are well beyond what they should be, it's estimated that 200 million people have died probably by the time I finish this talk. The complication of COVID-19, like lung scarring and heart damage, could become the next deniable pre-existing condition for over six million! Americans have already contracted the disease."
Biden almost certainly meant to say that 200 million have died already from the coronavirus, not that 200 million likely died in the time that it took for him to deliver his address in Philadelphia. But, man alive, that is not much of a defense. Biden’s number is nowhere near close to being accurate.
As of this writing, the total number of COVID-19-related death in the U.S. stands at 199,479, according to Johns Hopkins University. Biden is off by an order of magnitude of 199,800,521. Missed it by that much.
Given how badly the Democratic nominee botched his reading of his prepared remarks, it seems most likely he simply made a mistake when he said “million” instead of “thousand.” After all, he got the “200” part right. He also likely meant to say the U.S. is expected to hit 200,000 total COVID-19 deaths by the end of his address in Philadelphia, not that 200,000 people were expected to die during his roughly 30-minute speech. That makes much more sense.
Then again, as a member of President Trump’s rapid response team noted Sunday, Biden has a bad habit of overstating estimates. He claimed earlier this year during a visit to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that 120 million people had died from the coronavirus. Not even close. Earlier than that, the Democratic nominee claimed 150 million Americans have been killed by gun violence since 2007. Again, that is not even close to being true.
That said, “200 million” is probably just an honest gaffe, as opposed to an intentional falsehood. Let’s just say Biden was not batting a .300 Sunday afternoon from a prepared script. It is more likely that along with everything else he screwed up during his address, he simply bungled the COVID-19 death toll.
