The message from the White House is dramatic. The projection is that coronavirus causes between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths in the United States.
That’s what Dr. Deborah Birx, pandemic response coordinator, explained at best: as long as social estrangement guidelines are maintained. Respect them, Donald Trump noted, «it’s a matter of life and death.» «We’re going to spend two very hard weeks,» the president warned. «It’s going to be painful, very painful for two weeks.»
Why isn’t coronavirus affecting California and New York the same?
«I want all Americans to be prepared for the tough days ahead of us,» Trump asked, in the most serious intervention of what he’s done so far, on a Tuesday when the total death toll of the coronavirus in the United States already surpassed those they died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
On Wednesday, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country exceeds 190,000 and the coronavirus has caused more than 4,000 deaths, a number of deaths that have doubled in three days, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.
The country is facing a frightening reality. According to the most upbeat of the scenarios presented Tuesday by White House experts, the coronavirus will claim more American lives than the Wars of Vietnam (58,000) and Korea (34,000) combined. Up to 14 times more than the sum of American lives lost in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
«Covid-19 is the biggest test we’ve faced together since the United Nations was formed,» said António Guterres, secretary general of the New York-based organization. «It’s more than a health crisis. The coronavirus attacks societies at its core.»
President Trumo and Vice President Pence, as well as the authorities present at the daily press conference, wanted to convey to the public that success or failure depends on rigorous respect for estrangement measures.
«Mitigation is the answer,» said epidemiologist Anthony Fauci, a key man in the White House’s strategy against coronavirus, on Tuesday. »
The 15 days we have served on mitigation have had an effect. The reason we know we need to do an extra 30 days is that now is the time not to lift your foot off the accelerator, but to step on it even more.»
The fight against coronavirus in the United States is fought on two fronts. One is the New York City metropolitan area, which accounts for more than half of the country’s cases and where an almost wary atmosphere is lived.
The other front, depicted in a series of colored lines well below that of New York in the graphics shown Tuesday at the White House, is that of the rest of the country.
Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci stressed the importance that states that have not yet experienced an acceleration of cases already act to flatten the virus expansion curve. There are worrying outbreaks, they noted, in other urban areas such as Detroit or Miami.
On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Republican Ron DeSantis, who had resisted for weeks to impose more drastic measures to slow the expansion of the coronavirus, announced that he will decree the order to stay home at 21 million residents of the state. DeSantis decided to do so after a phone call with Trump in the morning.
«It’s a pause button nationwide,» the governor said, about the 30-day extension of casa Banca guidelines.
