You’d have known by now that the name of the coronavirus that’s destroying lives and jobs everywhere is called the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the disease is called COVID-19.
Just two months ago (it feels like two years, doesn’t it?), some people called it the Wuhan Virus.
If the virus hasn’t got an official name now, it’d now be called the US Virus.
Simply because as of now, the US now has the highest number of confirmed cases, registering a total of 163,479 cases.
That’s twice the number of cases in China now.
The good news is that the number of deaths stays low, at 3,146, which means the fatality rate, which is 1.9%, is lower than the global fatality rate of 3.4%.
Unfortunately, according to two White House staff who’s in the task force to fight the virus in the US, the number of deaths could be about 200,000—and one even said that could happen in the best-case scenario.
Dr Anthony Fauci: Millions of Cases with 200,000 Deaths
Dr Anthony Fauci is a very respected infectious disease expert in the US; the guy has been fighting infectious diseases for decades with a few different presidents.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is one of the members of the task force to fight COVID-19. Headed by Vice-President Mike Pence, the task force includes some of the best minds in the nation, which of course includes the Surgeon General of the US—basically, the head doctor of the county lah.
Yesterday, Dr Fauci estimated in an interview with CNN (yes, he’s very independent and not influenced by Donald Trump altogether if not he won’t be in CNN but in Fox News) that the death toll in the US could eventually be between 100k to 200k.
In comparison, the seasonal flu kills between 12k to 61k Americans annually, though you’ve got to know that the common flu is now in the “herd immunity” stage. H1N1 has 60.8 million infections and 12,469 deaths in the year that it peaked.
Dr Deborah Birx: Yes, 200K—Even If We Do Everything Right
Today, another member of the task force, Dr Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said in an interview with TODAY (not the Singapore TODAYonline lah) that yes: 200k deaths is a correct prediction…
…even “if we do things almost perfectly.”
In other words, with all the shutdown, social distancing, fast production of ventilators and whatnot, the 200k deaths might be inevitable.
But of course you’re thinking: it’s just a prediction by two people mah. If they’re so good, they’d be rich buying 4D.
Well, they’re that good.
Dr Anthony Fauci is the 13th most-cited scientist among the 2.5 to 3 million authors in all disciplines throughout the world who published articles in scientific journals. If you’ve been to university, you’d know that anyone who’s cited that many times must be someone super important.
The 79-year-old who looks 49 is one of the most respected people in the US, having even received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008. And the guy’s been fighting infectious diseases since 1968—that’s even older than some of your parents.
And as for Dr Deborah Birx, the good doctor here was a Colonel in the army, and have been fighting HIV since she retired from the army. And her position before becoming a member of this task force? An Ambassador-at-Large and United States Global AIDS Coordinator—so she knows what she’s doing.
In other words, this fight might really be a long fight with many casualties.
Over in Singapore, we now have 879 confirmed cases.
You can do your part to fight the virus hrough helping out in contact tracing by downloading the TraceTogether app.
In the meantime, keep yourself updated by bookmarking MOH’s website here and registering for the Gov.sg’s WhatsApp service here.