US told it faces ‘Pearl Harbor’ moment
Officials tell nation to avoid going to supermarket and pharmacy as outbreak builds towards peak
The US is facing its “Pearl Harbor” moment in the coronavirus pandemic, its senior health officials have warned. The outbreak, which has so far claimed 9,171 lives in the US, is expected to peak over the next fortnight. A day after Donald Trump warned Americans to prepare for “a lot of death”, Jerome Adams, America’s surgeon general, said: “The next week is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment. It’s going to be our 9/11 moment.”
THE US is facing its “Pearl Harbor” moment in the coronavirus pandemic, one of the country’s top health officials warned yesterday, as the White House appealed to Americans to avoid going even to the pharmacy and supermarket. The outbreak, which has already cost 9,171 lives in the US, is expected to peak over the next fortnight.
A day after Donald Trump warned Americans to brace themselves for “a lot of death”, senior administration officials reinforced the grim message on political talk shows in the US.
“The next week is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment. It’s going to be our 9/11 moment,” Jerome Adams, surgeon general and one of the country’s top health officials, said on NBC’S Meet the Press. “It’s going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives, and we really need to understand that if we want to flatten that curve and get through to the other side, everyone needs to do their part.
“We want everyone to understand you’ve got to be Rosie the Riveter.”
On Saturday, Deborah Birx, the White House virus task force coordinator, pleaded with Americans to curtail their movements even further.
“This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe and that means everybody doing the six-feet distancing, washing their hands,” she said.
Her warning came as the state of New York reported its first fall in coronavirus deaths yesterday, with 594 fatalities compared with 630 on Saturday.
Andrew Cuomo, the state’s governor, was cautious not to draw any conclusions yet, although the figures provided a glimmer of hope.
“The apex could be a plateau and we could be on that plateau now,” he said.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was also swift to play down hopes that the pandemic had peaked. It would be a “false statement” to say coronavirus was already under control, he said, although measures, including social distancing, were showing early signs of bearing fruit.
“This next week is going to look bad because we’re still not at that apex,” he said of New York. “Within a week, eight, nine days or so we’re hopefully going to see that turning around.”
He warned that the figures over the next week would be “shocking to some”. The overwhelming majority of states in the US have issued sweeping stay-at-home orders. But nine Republican governors in the South and Midwest have resisted doing so.
Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota have refused to issue any orders at all while Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina have only told residents in some parts of the state to stay at home.
South Dakota’s Kristi Noem said the US and her state’s constitution outlawed draconian measures. “South Dakota is not New York City,” she said.
Kim Reynolds of Iowa, meanwhile, suggested Dr Fauci did not have all the information needed to justify an order.
“I can’t lock the state down… people also have to be responsible for themselves,” she said.
Dr Fauci pleaded with the governors to reconsider. “It isn’t that they’re putting the rest of the country at risk as much as they’re putting themselves at risk,” he said. “Every time I get to the White House briefing room, I plead with people to take a look at those simple guidelines of physical separation.”
The epidemic has thrown the presidential election timetable into disarray. Georgia, Wyoming, Louisiana and Hawaii have cancelled or postponed their primaries, although Wisconsin’s election is still set for tomorrow.