As treatment improves, White House notes sharp drop in COVID death rates among elderly, middle-aged

As treatment for the infection improves, the White House on Friday noted a sharp drop in COVID-19 related death rates among elderly and middle-aged Americans. 

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany presented a fatality chart showing deaths over time per hundred cases for various age ranges. According to the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deaths have come down for every age group, especially for those over age 70 -- the age range marked with a red line.

"That red line is a testament to what this President has done," McEnany said Friday afternoon at a press conference. "Therapeutics, monoclonal antibodies -- that is a recent one -- that reduces hospitalization in high-risk seniors with moderate to mild COVID by 70 percent. That's American ingenuity rising to the occasion, and President Trump oversaw all of this." 

This week marked the grim milestone of more than 250,000 people who have died as a result of the coronavirus, McEnany noted that "the initial projection that our doctors gave us was 2 million people that would lose their lives. And it's a tragedy any time one life is lost. But we are far below the 2 million that this could have been." 

McEnany credited "very aggressive measures" to prevent more widespread deaths, including a ban on travel of non-citizens from China, expanding coronavirus testing and therapeutics.

McEnany acknowledged a recent rise in coronavirus cases as the weather grows colder, telling the press corp, "And it's very important: wash your hands, socially distance. We're taking this seriously."

McEnany was asked whether the White House had offered "mixed messaging" on safety when earlier in the week she had called some of those state guidelines “Orwellian.”  

"Well, two things can happen at once, and it's this: taking COVID seriously, engaging in aggressive mitigation, but also recognizing that the American people have certain freedoms," McEnany replied. "And it is, by definition, Orwellian for a state like Oregon to say, 'If you have more than six people in your family congregate in your home, we can jail you for 30 days.' That's not the American way."