Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Monday that US COVID-19 fatalities could climb to more than 300,000 by the end of the year if the pandemic continues on the same track.
The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said that the outlook is grim if “you look at the number of deaths and you count the days between now and the end of the year.”
“We’re now at over 250,000 deaths — a quarter of a million deaths. You could get well over 300,000 and close to even more than that if we don’t turn things around,” Fauci told the Washington Post.
The daily death toll has hovered between around 1,000 and 2,000 for the past month, Fauci said.
But he said that Americans have the power to change the trajectory of the pandemic by following public health measures, such as social distancing and wearing a mask.
“The numbers can be stark. They can be sobering in many respects,” Fauci said. “They can be frightening but we have the tools to prevent that from happening. It’s literally within our power to stop that from happening.”
