‘More suffering and death’ ahead for U.S. in coronavirus fight, top health expert says

A leading health expert had a grim warning for Americans on Saturday during a White House briefing by the Coronavirus Task Force.

“We have not reached our peak,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

“We will see more suffering and death, predominantly among the vulnerables in our society,” said Fauci, who has emerged as a top administration spokesman on the outbreak.

More than 156,000 cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 5,800 deaths as of March 15, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 2.950 confirmed cases with at least 60 deaths.

Although the number of new cases has declined in China, where the outbreak began, the United States can expect to see an ongoing rise in new cases, Fauci said.

“Things have switched over now to outside China,” he said. “When this is all over — and it will end — you will see a curve of how the coronavirus outbreak evolved.”

People with immunodeficiencies and lung disease, as well as the elderly, are especially vulnerable to coronavirus, Fauci said.

But he said he hopes the steps being taken in the United States, such as President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, will flatten the curve of coronavirus cases in the future.

This story was originally published March 14, 2020 at 1:03 PM with the headline "‘More suffering and death’ ahead for U.S. in coronavirus fight, top health expert says."