Doctors have warned Vice President Mike Pence that the United States could see an average of 1,500 coronavirus-related deaths each day starting next week — a number that could be topped by up to 2,000 by Christmas if further efforts to combat coronavirus are not installed quickly, CBS News reported late Tuesday.
Two senior administration officials familiar with a White House meeting of doctors on the coronavirus task force with Pence told CBS News that medical professionals on the task force feared the dire COVID-19 situation will only continue to get worse if further efforts to combat the virus are not implemented.
The doctors also expressed concern that rising COVID-19 cases which have begun to fill hospitals will completely overwhelm medical faciilities in short order.
According to CBS News, task force doctors have recommended the closure of bars and urged that restaurants discontinue indoor dining while allowing schools where transmission rates remain low to stay open.
The senior administration officials told CBS News that health officials on the task force are pressing either Pence or President Trump to address the public from the briefing room podium about the importance of hunkering down to combat the spread of coronavirus as cases surge across all 50 states. The health experts recommendation follow record-highs that have been repeatedly shattered in recent weeks as the virus spirals out of control.
President Trump meanwhile has taken an increasingly resigned approach to the pandemic response even as the virus reaches its worst phase since the pandemic began. Trump appears to have shifted his efforts almost entirely to spewing baseless claims of widespread election fraud — while firing officials who have proven disloyal in their refusal to promote falsehood.
In recent mentions of the COVID-19 crisis, Trump has primarily complained that his successor, President-elect Joe Biden will be credited with distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine after two pharmaceutical companies announced over the past week that their data show they have produced potential vaccines against coronavirus that are at least 90% effective.
“For those great ‘historians’, please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!” the president tweeted on Monday.
Biden responded to the vaccine news on Monday by calling the reports of potential candidates against the virus “really encouraging.”
He followed those comments up by saying that amid efforts to delay the transfer of power “more people may die” unless the Trump administration begins to cooperate with Biden’s incoming team.
“If we have to wait until Jan. 20 to start that planning, it puts us behind,” the President-elect said during a news conference on Monday. “More people may die if we don’t coordinate.”
