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Rabat – Dr. Anthony Fauci, an American infectious diseases expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, predicted “millions of cases” of coronavirus (COVID-19) and 100,000 deaths in the United States.
His forecasting also included “between 100,000 and 200,000” COVID-19-caused deaths, although he added an extent of uncertainty by concluding the pandemic is “a moving target”.
So far, the U.S. has counted the greatest number of infections worldwide: 130,496, with 2,315 deaths. Such development occurred in a month: the first case of the virus was detected in the country on February 29.
The total number of COVID-19-related deaths doubled in just two days, from March 27 to March 29. Health officials are certain that the spread of the disease is much wider but the cases go unreported.
Despite such high numbers of infections and rising numbers of deaths, the American government has been slow in introducing measures to contain the spread of the virus.
As of March 28, 27 out of 50 states introduced stay-at-home orders, with estimated two-thirds of the population, or 215 million American citizens, affected.
Dr. Fauci’s prognosis comes as the federal government considers lifting the orders on social distancing in areas that have not been seriously hard-hit by the spread of the disease.
President Trump, together with a group of conservative economists and politicians, believe that the economic shock caused by the lockdown may be more hurtful than the Americans dying from COVID-19.
A Republican from Texas went as far as claiming that the elderly should ”sacrifice themselves” instead of what is seen by conservative groups as “sacrificing the economy”: imposing the lockdown.
Various health officials oppose the Trump administration’s approach of “economy first”, recalling how the cases spiked in Hong Kong after the region eased its stay-at-home orders prematurely after the cases dropped.
Dr. Fauci expressed in several interviews his belief that the U.S. needs at least ‘a few more weeks’ before life can resume to that resembling pre-coronavirus times.
