‘Hardest, saddest’ days ahead, surgeon general warns
WASHINGTON – As the U.S. coronavirus death toll neared 10,000 on Sunday, Surgeon Gen. Jerome Adams said the coming week would be “the hardest and saddest of most Americans’ lives,” likening the projected loss of life to “our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment.”
Joining in that somber assessment was Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, who predicted that the dimensions of the outbreak would be “shocking to some” over the next eight or nine days.
“Things are going to get bad, and we need to be prepared for that,” Fauci, perhaps the best-known member of the White House coronavirus task force, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
He called on the country to “just buckle down, continue to mitigate, continue to do the physical separation, because we’ve got to get through this week that’s coming up.”
President Donald Trump, however, largely eschewed talk of dire coming days, instead expressing hopes for a “leveling off in the hottest spots” of infection.
Brushing aside criticism of his administration’s performance, he said in an early-evening briefing that he was making use of “the full power of the American government.”
“We’re orchestrating a massive federal response, unlike anything our country has ever done,” he said, later adding: “We’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.”
Earlier Sunday, officials offered hope that in some areas hit hard and early, the coronavirus wave may be cresting.
New York City is the national epicenter of the outbreak, its medical system staggering under a critical caseload, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state’s daily death toll had dropped slightly.
Even so, Cuomo, who has been praised for steady leadership amid the crisis, said at a briefing in his state’s capital, Albany, that it was too soon to know if the slight easing marked a downward trend or was merely a “blip.”
Flare-ups of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, were in evidence elsewhere in the country – in New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan, and in Louisiana, whose governor warned that ventilator capacity would soon be exhausted.
In Europe, the picture was mixed. Deaths were still climbing in the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose COVID-19 diagnosis was announced last week, was hospitalized Sunday. Trump expressed hopes for his recovery, saying Johnson was “strong.”
But Italy – the European epicenter – said Sunday its daily toll was at a twoweek low, with officials crediting strict lockdowns for seemingly slowing the progress of new infections. Hard-hit Spain, too, reported signs of a leveling off.
U.S. officials pleaded for public cooperation in hopes of replicating that pattern.
“We can look like that,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, the coronavirus task force coordinator. Referring to strict isolation measures in Spain and Italy, she said: “The promise is, if we do this, we could potentially be better.”
Adams, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” urged Americans to follow physical-distancing guidelines and to wear face coverings in public when it would be difficult to remain 6 feet apart. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week called on Americans to wear masks in crowded public places.
Trump said Friday of that precaution: “I don’t see it for myself.”
The surgeon general, like many in the president’s orbit, was at pains to avoid publicly contradicting or criticizing him. “The president is making a choice that is appropriate for him” regarding masks, said Adams, who last week released a video showing how to make a simple homemade face covering with fabric and rubber bands.
Adams also deflected questions about the need for a nationwide stay-athome order. Trump has said he prefers to leave the decision to governors, nine of whom have not issued such a directive in their states.
Governors, for their part, renewed their pleas for more federal help in procuring necessary medical supplies and equipment.
In appearances on news talk shows, some sharply contested Trump’s casting of blame on states for a lack of readiness.
Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee, appearing on NBC’S “Meet the Press,” cited good communication with Vice President Mike Pence and the CDC, but said the overall lack of national coordination in fighting the outbreak had been “ludicrous.”
Without mentioning Trump by name, he blasted the president’s contention that the federal government was meant to serve as a “backup” for states’ efforts to obtain needed supplies.