The United States will “in the coming weeks” start to record 100,000 new COVID-19 infections every single day, public health expert Dr. Ashish Jha warned Tuesday.
“We’re rising quickly,” the Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“If we just go back about six, seven weeks ago to Labor Day we were at about 35,000 cases a day,” Jha noted. “We’re above 70,000 and just heading up. So, I would not be surprised if we end up getting to 100,000.”
Jha said hitting the grim landmark figure could be avoided “if we do some prudent things” aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, such as social distancing and wearing masks.
“But it doesn’t feel like there’s just enough policy impetus to act as we need to,” he added. “And so I’m worried we’re going to hit 100,000 in a day at some point in the coming weeks,” he added.
Blitzer agreed. “We need some national leadership to tell people you got to wear masks and we’re not getting that national leadership right now,” he said.
President Donald Trump intentionally misled the public at the start of the pandemic by downplaying the risk of the virus, while in private he acknowledged its threat. He has sent mixed messages on the need to wear masks and has held multiple campaign rallies for mainly maskless crowds since his three-day hospitalization for coronavirus treatment earlier this month.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Sunday that the U.S. is “not going to control” the pandemic, but instead would “control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas.”
More than 226,000 Americans have now died from COVID-19 ― close to around 1,000 every day. It has sickened upwards of 8.7 million people nationwide.
Check out the interview here:
- Get the latest coronavirus updates here.
- What will life be like once a coronavirus vaccine arrives?
- Everything you need to know about face masks right now.
- What should you still be disinfecting to prevent COVID-19?
- Is it possible you had coronavirus earlier this year?
- Constantly arguing with your partner about coronavirus risks? You are not alone.
Everyone deserves accurate information about COVID-19. Support journalism without a paywall — and keep it free for everyone — by becoming a HuffPost member today.
