Just a few days ago the official US estimate was 100K dead, then it shot up to 200K, and now it’s 240K. In the span of a few days, the margin of error increased dramatically — so there’s no solidly ‘evidence-based’ way they can draw the line at 240. The reason for doing so is that the next bump up, 250, is a magic number: round enough to convert into a phrase based on the next order of magnitude, a MILLION. Experts around Trump like Fauci and (yes, even) Birx have to bullsh*t him to stay in the game: they know that if they make him feel bad, he’ll fire them and purge their allies, so they gaslight the Audience of One, walking the number up bit by bit. And when the press reports those numbers, the public gets gaslighted by extension.