The country has gotten used to bad news….
People are tired of the restrictions…
Officials do NOT want to shut things down like they did last spring….
The upcoming holidays will see even worst numbers….
And the vaccine’s ARE coming…
But not soon enough for the this months round of new infections…
First, Americans learned in the afternoon that the number of people in the hospital for Covid-19 was more than 100,000. That was nearly double the high point in spring, when the pandemic hit its first peak, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
Then, not long after evening fell, the U.S. recorded its greatest daily death toll ever: 2,760, with no sign of a letup. That surpassed the record set in April, when the pandemic hit its first peak in the country. And with hospitals filling, the days ahead seemed all too clear.
“If you tell me the hospitalizations are up this week, I’ll tell you that several weeks down the road, the deaths will be up,” said Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Dr. Redfield told the Chamber of Commerce Foundation that the winter might prove devastating, and that perhaps by February, 450,000 Americans might be dead. (The number now is about 273,000.)
But the C.D.C. head seeded his caution with a grain of hope. Americans, he said, could reduce their losses through simple measures like wearing a mask.
“It’s not a fait accompli,” he said. “We’re not defenseless. The truth is that mitigation works. But it’s not going to work if half of us do what we need to do. Probably not even if three-quarters do.”
For all the similarities to the spring pandemic peak, there are some profound differences.
In April, the virus and the deaths were concentrated in New York and New England. Today, the pandemic’s toll is being felt across the country.
Still more sobering: The April peak represented the worst moment of spring. It was followed by a decline in deaths as lockdowns were imposed and many Americans altered their behavior.
And as staggering as it is, the death toll reported Wednesday appears likely only to worsen, experts say, as the delayed effects of Thanksgiving travel are felt. And many Americans are now weighing how to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s.