Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s foremost infection disease expert, says the United States could experience more than 100,000 deaths and millions of infections from the coronavirus pandemic.
Fauci offered his prognosis in an interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning, as the federal government weighs rolling back guidelines on social distancing.
‘I would say between 100,000 and 200,000 cases,’ he said, correcting himself to say he meant deaths. ‘We’re going to have millions of cases.’ But he added ‘I don’t want to be held to that’ because the pandemic is ‘such a moving target.’
The bleak projection comes as the US leads the world in coronavirus infections, with 123,778 reported to date. The nationwide death toll surpassed 2,100 on Saturday, doubling figures reported two days earlier.
The government is particularly looking at easing restrictions in areas that have not been hard-hit by the outbreak at the conclusion of the nationwide 15-day effort to slow the spread of the virus.
When asked about whether supported the move, Fauci said he would only support the rollback of social distancing guidelines in lesser impacted areas if there is enhanced testing in place.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s foremost infection disease expert, says the United States could experience more than 100,000 deaths and millions of infections from the coronavirus pandemic
The coronavirus death toll in America topped 2,000 on Saturday, more than double the number reported two days earlier
The US currently leads the world in coronavirus infections with 123,778 reported as of Sunday morning
The CDC has warned that the US is still ‘in the acceleration phase’ of the pandemic and all corners of the country are at risk
New York City remains the epicenter of the nation’s outbreak, with 30,765 cases and 672 deaths.
But several other cities including Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Boston are now being monitored as potential hotspots, threatening to push the overall case count in the US higher and higher.
Dr Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning and warned that no area will be spared by the pandemic.
‘Every metro area should assume that they will have an outbreak equivalent to New York,’ Dr Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning
‘Every metro area should assume that they will have an outbreak equivalent to New York,’ Birx said.
She said the Trump administration is working hard to push supplies such as ventilators out to affected areas to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed – as many across the country are already complaining of dangerous shortages.
‘Hospitals are so busy taking care of the people who are ill, they can’t be spending time doing inventory,’ Birx said. ‘We need to help and support that.’
‘The sooner we react and the sooner the states and the metro areas react and ensure that they have put in full mitigation … then we’ll be able to move forward,’ she added.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has expressed similar concern for new hotspots.
Dr John Brooks, head of the CDC’s Epidemiology Research Team, said that the US is still ‘in the acceleration phase’ of the pandemic and that all corners of the country are at risk.
‘There is no geographic part of the United States that is spared from this,’ he said.
Some experts have said that outbreaks in other parts of the country could be even more devastating than the ones seen in New York City because they are less prepared.
‘I’m worried that New York might not be the worst-case scenario when you think about other states that have even older and less-healthy populations, and fewer hospital beds available,’ Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has developed modeling tools designed to help public officials prepare for the spread of COVID-19, told The Washington Post.
