Nearly 5,000 Americans, including more than 1,900 New Yorkers, had died from the coronavirus as of Wednesday, serious milestones on a steep road with no exit ramp visible.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House COVID-19 coordinator, said Monday that projections show up to 200,000 deaths nationwide “if we do things almost perfectly.” The White House revised its projection Tuesday, saying 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could die from the scourge that is ravaging the nation and world.
If we don’t do things almost perfectly, failing to keep in place strong social distancing as long as necessary so already overwhelmed hospitals drown in cases? Shudder to think.
Given steep trend lines here, the United States now leads the world in the number of cases, eclipsing China. That’s not in and of itself alarming. Given Beijing’s penchant for lying, its totals are not to be trusted. More to the point, case totals depend entirely on who gets tested, and standards vary wildly.
For the very same reason, death rates are also inconsistent and unreliable.
New York’s register at 2% earlier this week (that’s 1,550 divided by 75,795), which is lower than Italy’s and lower than once feared, but orders of magnitude worse than the seasonal flu’s 0.1%.
This is absolutely not just another flu.
This virulent and highly communicable pathogen is in all 50 states, which means New York’s COVID-19 explosion likely is a preview of what’s to come from Minnesota to Mississippi to Michigan to Montana and everywhere else in the nation.
— New York Daily News