在周二白宫举行的冠状病毒特别工作组简报会上，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)表示，由于医疗机构在护理因冠状病毒住院的患者，美国政府正在削减约1万台呼吸机。
呼吸机被认为是冠状病毒治疗的重要组成部分，因为病毒会攻击肺部。当肺停止正常工作时，呼吸机为病人机械地“呼吸”。
“我们正在向50个州提供大量医疗设备和用品，”特朗普说。“我们也有所保留。我们有将近10，000台呼吸机，已经准备好了。我们不得不阻止他们，因为高潮即将到来，而且势头非常强劲，我们希望能够立即将它移动到位，而不去带走它，这样我们就准备好了。”
新闻周刊联系联邦应急管理局寻求评论。
然而，特朗普表示，推迟10，000台呼吸机的原因是预计在未来两到三周内病例将激增。
“现在就像一个储备，”特朗普说。“坦率地说，这就像石油储备，只是更有价值。”
“但我们有充足的呼吸机供应，我们准备好了，”特朗普补充道。“我们都准备好了。我们准备好了卡车，我们准备好了一切，因为正如我们所说的，这可能是糟糕的两周。这将是非常糟糕的两个星期，也许三个星期。这将是我们前所未见的三周。”
冠状病毒特别工作组成员黛博拉·比克斯博士和安东尼·福西博士周二公布了图表，显示随着政府重新发布冠状病毒缓解指南，冠状病毒在美国境内的预计传播情况。尽管重申社会距离可以“产生影响”，但这些模型仍然表明，美国预计死亡人数在10万至20万之间。
“没有神奇的子弹或疫苗，”比克斯说，“只有行为。”
福西解释说，白宫扩大社交距离时间表的原因是基于这些数据。“现在不是把你的脚从油门上拿开的时候，”福西说。
特朗普表示，他认为白宫提出的一些减少冠状病毒传播的指导方针，包括频繁洗手、不握手和保持社会距离，可能会持续“很长时间”然而，总统确实告诫美国人“为未来漫长的日子做好准备”
“我们将经历非常艰难的两周，”特朗普说。“然后，正如专家们所预测的那样，我想我们中的许多人在经过如此努力的研究之后，都在预测，我们将在隧道的尽头看到一些真正的曙光。但这将是非常非常痛苦的两周。”
最近的数据显示，美国确诊的冠状病毒病例为181，906例，比世界上任何其他国家都多。虽然有3，655人死于该病毒，但有6，262人被列为已完全康复。
TRUMP SAYS U.S. GOVERNMENT'S 'HOLDING BACK' 10,000 VENTILATORS FOR 'SURGE' IN CORONAVIRUS INFECTIONS
During Tuesday's coronavirus task force briefing from the White House, President Donald Trump said the U.S. government is holding back approximately 10,000 ventilators as the medical community cares for patients hospitalized with coronavirus.
Ventilators have been recognized as a vital part of coronavirus care since the virus attacks the lungs. When the lungs cease to function properly, ventilators mechanically "breathe" for the patient.
"We're giving massive amounts of medical equipment and supplies to the 50 states," Trump said. "We also are holding back quite a bit. We have almost 10,000 ventilators that we have ready to go. We have to hold them back because the surge is coming and it's coming pretty strong and we want to be immediately able to move it into place without going and taking it so we're ready to go."
Newsweek reached out to FEMA for comment.
However, Trump said the reason for holding back the 10,000 ventilators was because of the projected surge of cases that are expected to occur over the next two to three weeks.
"It's like a reserve right now," Trump said. "It's like oil reserves except more valuable, quite frankly."
"But we have a good supply of ventilators and we're ready to go," Trump added. "We're all ready. We have trucks ready, we have everything ready because as we're saying, this could be a hell of a bad two weeks. It's going to be a very bad two, maybe three weeks. This is going to be three weeks like we haven't seen before."
President Donald Trump speaks during the daily coronavirus briefing at the Rose Garden of the White House on Monday in Washington, DC.WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY
Coronavirus task force members Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci unveiled graphs Tuesday showing the projected spread of coronavirus within the U.S. as the administration reissued coronavirus mitigation guidelines. While reiterating that social distancing can "make a difference," the models still indicated a U.S. projection of between 100,000-200,000 deaths.
"There's no magic bullet or vaccine," Birx said, "it's just behaviors."
Fauci explained the reason that the White House expanded the timeline for social distancing was based on the data. "This is not the time to take your foot off the accelerator," Fauci said.
Trump said he believed some of the guidelines proposed by the White House to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, including frequent handwashing, not shaking hands and maintaining social distance, could continue "long into the future." However, the president did caution Americans to "be prepared for the long days that lie ahead."
"We're going to go through a very tough two weeks," Trump said. "And then hopefully, as the experts are predicting, as I think a lot of us are predicting after having studied it so hard, we're going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel. But this is going to be a very, very painful two weeks."
Recent data indicated 181,906 confirmed U.S. cases of coronavirus, which represents more cases than any other country in the world. While 3,655 individuals have died as a result of the virus, 6,262 people are listed as being totally recovered.
