Donald Trump at a campaign rally, Waterford Township, Michigan, October 30, 2020 (Salwan Georges/Washington Post)

UPDATE, NOV. 2:

Donald Trump has threatened the dismissal of the Government’s top Coronavirus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Responding to a “Fire Fauci” chant at his Sunday campaign appearance, Trump said, “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s medical confidante Dr. Scott Atlas has apologized for his starring role in a 30-minute program on Russian State outlet RT.

UPDATE, 1230 GMT:

The Government’s top Coronavirus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci — ostracized and insulted by Donald Trump — offers a stark assessment:

We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation.

All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s medical confidante Dr. Scott Atlas — who has no experience in epidemiology, but who has been a Fox TV commentator — was appearing on another pro-Trump channel, Russian State outlet RT, to promote “herd immunity” and denounce medical and public health experts.

Fauci said of Atlas in his interview with the Washington Post:

I have real problems with that guy. He’s a smart guy who’s talking about things that I believe he doesn’t have any real insight or knowledge or experience in. He keeps talking about things that when you dissect it out and parse it out, it doesn’t make any sense.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: A public health study of 18 rallies for Donald Trump concludes that they led to more than 30,000 Coronavirus cases and more than 700 deaths.

The Stanford University researchers examined communities for 10 weeks after the rallies, using regression models, demographics, and the trajectory of COVID-19 cases in similar counties.

They conclude that Trump’s events, defying the advice of medical and public health experts, “increased subsequent confirmed cases of COVID-19 by more than 250 per 100,000 residents”.

Our analysis strongly supports the warnings and recommendations of public health officials
concerning the risk of COVID-19 transmission at large group gatherings, particularly when the
degree of compliance with guidelines concerning the use of masks and social distancing is low. The
communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death.

The US death toll reached 230,556 on Saturday. Confirmed cases, rising at a record pace, are now 9,126,361.

Trump’s Risky Appearances

A CNN investigation of 17 Trump campaign rallies reinforces the Stanford findings.

The survey established that 14 of the host counties had an increased rate of new Coronavirus cases one month after the Trump events between August 17 and September 26.

Eight of the counties had declining rates of infection in the month before Trump showed up. But afterwards, ten of the counties had rates of infection that grew faster than the overall rate for their states.

Demanding the “reopening” of the US, despite the guidance of Government experts over the pandemic, Trump resumed his rallies on June 20 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event sparked a surge of cases in the Tulsa area and throughout the state, which had suffered less than other US areas in the first wave of the virus. One prominent attendee, former GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain, died on July 30.

Trump’s appearances were again halted, but largely because the rally filled less than 7,000 of almost 20,000 seats in the arena.

However, in August, Trump renewed them with a vengeance, as he trailed Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden in polls. From a White House event for the Republican National Convention to gatherings across the US, there has been no social distancing and few attendees wearing masks.

Campaigning in Detroit, Michigan on Saturday, Biden challenged Trump’s ongoing denial of the virus’s threat and mocking of medical and public health measures: