PUERTO RICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Hurricane Maria claimed the lives of 4,645 people in Puerto Rico last year and not the 64 long pegged by the island’s government as the official death toll, according to a survey of thousands of residents by a research team led by Harvard University. The researchers estimated that most victims of the storm died between Sept. 20 and Dec. 31, 2017, as a direct or indirect result of Puerto Rico’s worst natural disaster in 90 years. One-third perished because of delayed or interrupted medical care. While cautioning that the estimate of 4,645 victims may be too low, the researchers said the numbers ‘underscore the inattention of the U.S. government to the frail infrastructure of Puerto Rico.’ The tally, reported online on Tuesday [5-29-18] in the New England Journal of Medicine, is likely to be controversial because it is far higher than previous independent estimates. The emergency response to the disaster became highly politicized and provoked criticism of President Donald Trump, who was faulted when much of the U.S. territory remained without power for months. Puerto Rico’s government released a statement on Tuesday welcoming the study and saying it would analyze it further.”
-Gene Emery, “Study hikes Puerto Rico’s Hurricane Maria death toll to 4,645,” Reuters, May 29, 2018 11:47 am