The White House coronavirus task force announced that it predicts 100,000 to 240,000 coronavirus deaths in the US during a briefing.
On Tuesday, the medical experts delivered a data-centric presentation that suggested a six-figure death record from the coronavirus pandemic as the low-end “goal” of the mitigation measured being carried out by the government.
US President Donald Trump, who was usually optimistic about the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, said during that briefing that the U.S. is “in the midst of a great national trial unlike any we have ever faced before“ and that the next two weeks would be “painful.”
During the briefing, several models characterized how far the pandemic could reach in the U.S.. The observations could happen despite weeks of advising Americans to refrain from going outside and limit social routines to curb the spread of the virus.
A chart labeled “Goals of Community Mitigation” demonstrated one of the best-case projections at around 100,000 to 240,000 deaths.
Meanwhile, the curve of infections using no strict mitigation efforts displayed a worst-case scenario of 2.2 million deaths related to coronavirus. This figure was never seriously expected but that Trump reiterated several times.
Trump, after being asked by a reporter about the possible number of deaths in the U.S., gave the floor of the White House Press Briefing Room to his medical experts, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.
“I would like to have maybe Dr. Fauci or Deb come up and say — I mean, I have the numbers, but I’d rather have them say the numbers, if you don’t mind,” Trump told the reporter. “It’s a big question.”
Fauci and Birx explained that the models were "heavily laden" by the surge of cases in states like New York and New Jersey. This made other charts look like the rate of infection per 100,000 people in those two states was higher than the rest of the country.
“If all of the other states and all the other metro areas are able to hold that case number down, then it‘s a very different picture,“ Birx said. “But you have to predict on the data you have, which is heavily skewed to New York and New Jersey.“
More than 180,000 people are tested positive of coronavirus in the U.S., with almost 4,000 deaths as massive testing finally starts to happen.
“We don’t accept that number, that that’s what it’s going to be,” Fauci said of the 100,000 to 240,000 figures. “We are going to be doing everything we can to get it even significantly below that.”
“I don't want it to be a mixed message: This is the thing that we need to anticipate, but that doesn’t mean that’s what we are going to accept. We want to do much, much better than that," he said.
Fauci advised the people to prepare for disheartening numbers. He pointed out people should practice social distancing to “flatten the curve."
“Now is the time, whenever you‘re having an effect, not to take your foot off the accelerator and on the brake, but to just press it down on the accelerator,” Fauci said.
“We really believe and hope every day that we can do a lot better than that,” she said. “Because that’s not assuming 100 percent of every American does everything they are supposed to be doing — but I think that's possible.”
