Governor Andrew Cuomo has now estimated that 16,000 New Yorkers could die from the coronavirus. The number of deaths in the state has grown dramatically to 1,941. And, according to Vice News, 400 people died from coronavirus in a 24 hour period in New York.

President Trump has let Americans down by drastically underplaying the severity of the coronavirus from when it first came into the cultural consciousness. Hospitals in New York are so short on ventilators that they have resorted to sharing ventilators between patients.

As the coronavirus continues to spread, with no real indication on when the curve will be flattened, it is hard to imagine the situation the United States would be in if President Trump had handled the coronavirus more seriously than he did in the beginning. Now, with death tolls rising in New York, there is a chance that 16,000 people will die from the virus.

It may be too harsh to blame Trump for the whole of these deaths, but it's important to hold elected officials accountable for fumbling what needs to be handled cleanly.

Trump was elected as President and in moments of crisis we look towards our leader to show us how to handle the crisis. In the beginning, Trump downplayed the pandemic, said it was going to go away on its own, and didn't take necessary precautions to ensure that if it did turn out to be a bigger deal than expected, the American infrastructure would survive in a stronger way than it is now.

For that lack of preparedness, Trump's inaction has accelerated this crisis in America and has driven it to the point we are at today — where 16,000 New Yorkers could lose their lives.

There needs to be some accountability on Trump's part for what is happening in our country, just as there needs to be accountability for every leader who's country was not prepared for the crisis. Sixteen-thousand deaths in just a single state are too many.