U.S. Pandemic Deaths Likely to Double Sans Urgent Action
Without a national prevention effort, lockdowns may be the only way to stop hundreds of thousands of additional U.S. deaths
The pandemic is rapidly spiraling out of control and soon only nationwide lockdown measures will prevent hundreds of thousands of additional Covid-19 deaths in the United States, say infectious disease experts who, meantime, still clamor for a national plan that could prevent such a health catastrophe and economic debacle.
Yet the White House has been mum on any new actions as Covid-19 infections have accelerated exponentially to a record 181,196 new cases November 13, while hospitals become dangerously overcrowded, health workers are exhausted, and Covid deaths rise back above 1,100 per day on average.
Given the pace of new cases already, 2,000 deaths per day by the end of this month is “essentially baked into” the math, without even accounting for any rise in new case counts, says Trevor Bedford, PhD, an associate professor of infectious diseases at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Case counts are expected to continue soaring, however.
Without urgent action at the federal level to slow the spread, newly diagnosed infections will…
