- With the number of coronavirus cases and deaths on the rise, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the U.S. doesn’t have much time to get the virus under control.
- Fauci recently said that the U.S. will be in big trouble if it can’t get the daily number of new coronavirus below 10,000 by fall.
Despite Trump’s remarks claiming that the coronavirus is “under control,” the reality is that the coronavirus remains an ongoing and serious concern in the United States. Just a few days ago, Florida, North Carolina, and California all reported a record number of coronavirus-related deaths in a 24-hour period. So while some people initially thought that the spike in new coronavirus cases was solely a function of more widespread testing, a rising number of hospital admissions and deaths seems to invalidate that theory.
With the United States still struggling to get a handle on COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci recently told NBC News that the U.S. is poised to have a really big problem on its hands if it can’t get the daily number of new coronavirus cases below 10,000 before fall. The reason why fall will be an especially crucial time for the coronavirus is that it coincides with flu season and cooler temperatures which make it easier for the virus to spread.
“People were talking in the spring about the big surge we had that everyone was hoping would go down to baseline, and they were talking about the second wave in the fall,” Fauci said.
“You look at our numbers now,” Fauci added, “we’re right in the middle of the first wave here. We’re having a surging of cases. The last ones with 50-60,000 per day with 1,000 deaths per day. We’ve got to get those numbers down. And if we don’t get them down, then we’re going to have a really bad situation in the fall. Because as you get indoors and you get the complication of influenza, that’s something we’re going to have to deal with.”
With the number of coronavirus cases rising, Fauci emphasized that the country needs to remain vigilant when it comes to social distancing, wearing masks in public, and washing hands.
Notably, this isn’t the first time Fauci has cautioned that the worst of the coronavirus might still lie ahead. Just two weeks ago, Fauci said that if we can’t effectively contain the coronavirus, it could potentially end up rivaling the Spanish Flu.
Calling the coronavirus a pandemic of historic proportions, Fauci said:
That was influenza, this is coronavirus, that essentially thrust itself onto the human population. It had two characteristics that are the thing that make it, as I say, ‘the perfect storm.’ And that is a virus that jumps species, but that almost immediately has an extraordinarily, capable and efficient way of spreading from human to human. Simultaneously with having a considerable degree of morbidity and mortality.
…
If you look at the magnitude of the 1918 pandemic where anywhere from 50 to 75 to 100 million people globally died, that was the mother of all pandemics and truly historic. I hope we don’t even approach that with [COVID-19] but it does have the makings of, the possibility of approaching that in seriousness.
Incidentally, Fauci last week said that life in the United States likely won’t return to normal until 2021. Even in a best-case scenario that results in the development of an effective coronavirus vaccine, administering it to the public at large will take some time. That said, there’s a strong chance the coronavirus will be looming in our lives well into mid-2021.
