白宫冠状病毒应对协调员黛博拉·伯克斯(Deborah Birx)博士警告说,大流行病蔓延到全国各地。
伯克斯(Birx)此前曾担任美国全球艾滋病协调员,他在接受NBC新闻周日的媒体采访时发表了上述言论。她警告说,该国需要迅速采取行动,以防止尽可能多的扩散。
医生解释说:“我们都深为关切,这就是为什么我们一直在所有都会区和所有州提高警惕。” “没有州,没有地铁区将被保留。”
“我们越早做出反应,各州和都会地区就越早做出反应并确保他们已得到充分缓解,同时确切地了解他们的医院需要什么,那么我们将能够共同前进并保护医院大多数美国人。”伯克斯补充说。
美国国家过敏和传染病研究所所长安东尼·福西(Anthony Fauci)博士在周日接受美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)的国情咨文采访时给出了更为严峻的预测。
Fauci警告说:“我们将要有数百万个案件。” 他进一步预计,根据他所看到的数据,美国可能会看到100,000至200,000例死亡。
根据约翰·霍普金斯大学(John Hopkins University)更新的追踪器,截至撰写本文时,美国已确认超过125,000例冠状病毒病例。因冠状病毒引起的疾病COVID-19导致2100多人死亡,现已康复2600多人。
特朗普政府因处理冠状病毒爆发而受到健康专家和民主党议员的严厉批评。在确诊病例数方面,美国已远远超过了中国(冠状病毒最先出现的国家)和世界上每个其他国家。尽管特朗普采取了早期的预防措施,禁止所有最近来华访问的外国人进入美国,但政府未能迅速开展测试,从而难以追踪病毒的传播并隔离受感染的人。
尽管卫生专家指出,特朗普的提早旅行禁令为美国提供了更多的准备时间,但由于缺乏检测以及未能在那几周内隔离那些被感染者,使得冠状病毒得以迅速传播而几乎没有缓解。特朗普还一再低估了冠状病毒带来的风险,将其与普通流感反复进行比较,后者的致命性至少低十倍,并将许多人的担忧归类为民主党的“新骗局”。
代表众议院众议院众议院民主党代表南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)在周日接受采访时说,特朗普的“否认之初是致命的。他拖延将设备运到哪里—继续拖延将设备运到需要的地方,这是致命的。” 与CNN。
佩洛西补充说:“当总统摆弄时,人们正在垂死。我们只需要采取一切预防措施。”
现在,在过去的两个星期中,州和市政府实施了严格的社会疏离措施,包括关闭酒吧,餐馆,学校,体育馆,电影院和公共聚会。联邦政府还发布了与社会隔离的指导方针,同时采取措施支持州政府对抗病毒。
Birx, who previously served as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, made the remark during an interview with NBC News' Meet the Press on Sunday. She cautioned that the country needs to act quickly to prevent as much of the spread as possible.
"We all are deeply concerned and [that's] why we've been raising the alert in all metro areas and in all states," the doctor explained. "No state, no metro area will be spared."
"The sooner we react, and the sooner the states and metro areas react and ensure that they've put in full mitigation, at the same time understanding exactly what their hospital needs, then we'll be able to move forward together and protect the most Americans," Birx added.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gave an even more dire prediction in a Sunday interview with CNN's State of the Union.
"We're going to have millions of cases," Fauci warned. He further projected that the U.S. could see between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths based on the data he was seeing.
As of the time of writing, there are more than 125,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S., according to a tracker updated by John Hopkins University. More than 2,100 people have died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and over 2,600 people have already recovered.
The Trump administration has faced substantial criticism from health experts and Democratic lawmakers for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. The U.S. has far surpassed China, the country where the coronavirus first arose, and every other country in the world in the number of confirmed cases. While Trump took early precautionary action by barring all foreigners who had recently visited China from entering the U.S., the government failed to rapidly roll out testing making it difficult to track the virus' spread and isolate those infected.
Although health experts have noted that Trump's early travel ban gave the U.S. additional time to prepare, the lack of testing and failure to isolate those infected during those weeks allowed the coronavirus to spread rapidly throughout the country with little mitigation. Trump also repeatedly downplayed the risk posed by the coronavirus, comparing it repeatedly to the common flu, which is at least 10 times less deadly, and classifying the concern from many as a "new hoax" by the Democrats.
Trump's "denial at the beginning was deadly. His delay of getting equipment to where–it continues his delay in getting equipment to where it's needed, is deadly," Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who represents California, said during a Sunday interview with CNN.
"As the president fiddles, people are dying. We just have to take every precaution" Pelosi added.
Now, over the past two weeks, state and municipal governments have implemented stringent social distancing measures, including closing bars, restaurants, schools, gyms, cinemas and public gatherings. The federal government has also issued social distancing guidelines, while taking steps to support state governments in their battle against the virus.