Surgeon general fears outbreak ‘to get bad’ this week
WASHINGTON — The U.S. surgeon general issued his starkest warning to date on Monday about the health risk posed by the coronavirus outbreak, warning Americans that the crisis was “going to get bad” this week.
The country’s top public health official, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, sounded the alarm as nearly one-third of Americans awoke to “stay at home orders.”
As of Sunday night, states with a population totaling more than 100 million people have imposed restrictions to curtail the virus, which has infected nearly 35,000 people and killed 428 in the United States, putting the country on a track similar to those of devastated European countries such as Italy and Spain.
“This week it’s going to get bad,” Adams told NBC’s “Today” show, saying there were more people out to see Washington’s famed annual cherry blossoms than there were blossoms.
“This is how the spread is occurring. Everyone needs to be taking the right steps right now: stay home.”
Trump imposed a 15-day national action plan a week ago urging Americans to follow the direction of the “stay at home” orders of state and local officials.
At the same time, he has also been far more optimistic than health experts have been about the prognosis for the outbreak while also voicing concern about the negative effect of shutting down wide swathes of the economy.
“We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself,” Trump tweeted in all capital letters overnight.
“At the end of the 15-day period, we will make a decision as to which way we want to go.”
Also on Monday, the U.S. Federal Reserve mounted an extraordinary new array of programs to offset the disruptions to the economy caused by the outbreak, backstopping an unprecedented range of credit for households, small businesses and major employers.
Congress was trying to address concerns over the economy, which is forecast to shrink as a result of emergency measures.
U.S. Senate Democrats and Republicans were working on an economic relief bill, aware that failure to strike a deal could trigger further heavy losses in U.S. stock markets.
Independent experts have suggested far more than 15 days will be needed to halt the spread.