The model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, often cited by the White House, forecast that 134,000 people will die of Covid-19 in the United States by August.
Ali Mokdad, a professor of Health Metrics Sciences at IHME, told CNN that the rise in forecast cases was based on increased mobility before the “premature relaxation” of social distancing and new outbreaks in the Midwest.
States such as Minnesota and Illinois have sharply rising infection curves, and few states yet satisfy the White House guidelines for 14 days of falling infections before reopening is contemplated. Trump however has not spoken out to ensure the guidelines are followed.
Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb warned in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that while mitigation hadn’t failed, social distancing and other measures hadn’t “brought the number of new cases and deaths down as much as expected or stopped the epidemic from expanding.”
On CNN’s “New Day” on Monday, Andy Slavitt, a former top Obama administration public health expert warned if New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, which have peaked, are excepted, US coronavirus infections are rising at a 20% rate.
“While we have been staying indoors we have been slowing down the spread. What we haven’t done is get rid of the virus. The virus is still out there,” Slavitt said.
Jarring signs that the pandemic will kill more people than the administration had hoped even several weeks ago, come early in a week that will end with new unemployment figures that could approach levels last seen in the 1930s Great Depression.
The data will bolster critics who say stay-at-home orders must be lifted to get Americans back to work — a position the White House seems increasingly to be adopting.
The White House has blocked Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, from testifying before the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies regarding Covid-19 response.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Saturday said Fauci was prohibited from testifying because committee members did not provide enough details to explain why Fauci needed to participate.
He is, however, still expected to appear before a committee in the Republican-led Senate.
A senior administration official said that top public health officials needed to focus on their work not in delivering testimony.
That did not appear to stop them having to spend hours on end standing beside Trump during the stem-winder briefings that have now been halted.
