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| Screenshot: JAMA Network/YouTube |
This is just the “beginning” of a dangerous new wave of coronavirus cases that could become more deadly as it reaches an older population in the U.S., according to Dr. Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director of the CDC. The U.S. has identified at least 2.59 million cases and over 126,000 deaths, the highest numbers in the world by far, with states like Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, and others experiencing record numbers of new cases each day.
The troubling assessment was made by Dr. Schuchat during an interview with Dr. Howard Bauchner from the Journal of the American Medical Association that was livestreamed Monday on YouTube.
“What we have in the United States is hard to describe because it’s so many different outbreaks,” Schuchat said, stressing that dwindling hospital bed capacity in places like Texas was concerning and that “no one” wanted to see a repeat of what happened in New York. Some parts of Texas have already run out of room for ICU patients with covid-19.
Schuchat acknowledged the death rate for the virus has been lower over the past week because younger people are getting the disease, but that could change quickly as healthier people pass it on to populations that are more vulnerable.
“I think there was a lot of wishful thinking around the country that, ‘Hey it’s summer. Everything’s going to be fine. We’re over this.’ And we are not even beginning to be over this. There is a lot of worrisome factors about the last week or so. These increases are in many places,” Schuchat said.
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