Mar 23, 2020 - Health
Surgeon general on coronavirus: "This week, it's gonna get bad"
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"I want America to understand: This week, it's going to get bad," Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Monday on NBC's "Today," referring to the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
Why it matters: The U.S. has reported more than 35,000 coronavirus cases and 371 deaths from the virus, making it the third-largest outbreak in the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
What he's saying:
"We really need to come together as a nation. I think there are a lot of people who are doing the right things, but I think that, unfortunately, we're finding out a lot of people think this can't happen to them.
We don't want Dallas, or New Orleans, or Chicago to turn into the next New York, and it means that everyone needs to be taking the right steps, right now. And that means stay at home."— Surgeon General Jerome Adams
- Last week Adams said the Trump administration's push for 15 days of social distancing "is likely not going to be enough" to prevent the virus spreading.
The big picture: Axios' Mike Allen and Sam Baker report that even the base-case scenario for the outbreak in the U.S. is terrible.
- A survey of epidemiology experts in academia, government and industry predicted about 200,000 deaths in the U.S. this year, but other experts have established a range that stretches from as few as 19,000 deaths to as many as 1.2 million.
Go deeper: The gaping holes in U.S. coronavirus testing strategy
