The White House issued new data on Tuesday that shows the bleak future ahead for the country with the most confirmed cases on COVID-19. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, presented the public with a few charts that show the predicted spread of the outbreak as well as the anticipated deaths. Officials are now projecting that there will be 100,000-240,000 American deaths over the next few months if every state follows the social distancing guidelines perfectly.
President Donald Trump prepared Americans for a coming surge in coronavirus cases, and saying the U.S. is about to face a "very, very painful two weeks...when you look at night, the kind of death that has been caused by this invisible enemy, its incredible."
Total Global Cases: Over 855,000
Total Deaths: At Least 42,000
Total Recovered: At Least 176,000
Overwhelmed Health Care
The European University Hospital Alliance, which includes prominent European health care systems and universities, called for more urgent European collaboration to prevent drug shortages on Tuesday.
The Alliance states that the lockdown of borders as well as export bans have halted distribution lines and are beginning to cause shortages of much needed medicines like painkillers.
"In the absence of European collaboration to ensure a steady supply of these drugs, front-line Covid hospital may no longer be able to provide adequate intensive care in one to two weeks from now," the Alliance warned in a statement.
Across the Atlantic Ocean, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending 250 ambulances, around 500 EMTs and paramedics and 85 refrigerated trucks to New York City to brace for the coming apex of the spread.
"I'm tired or being behind this virus. We've been behind this virus from day one," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo lamented during a press conference. "We underestimated this virus. It's more powerful, it's more dangerous than we expected."
Privacy Concerns
As many nations, especially in the West, grapple with outbreak containment at the cost of infringing on democracy, the European Union's European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned member stated that emergency measures cannot undercut civil liberties.
"It is of utmost importance that emergency measures are not at the expense of our fundamental principles and values...Any emergency measures must be limited to what is necessary and strictly proportionate. They must not last indefinitely...governments must make sure that such measures are subject to regular scrutiny."
Changes in Regulation
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently reconsidering its guidance on the public wearing masks as new data demonstrates that many individuals who show no symptoms are able to infect others with the virus.
Director of the CDC Dr. Robert Redfield told NPR that the agency's data shows that around 25% of those infected remain asymptomatic.
"That's important, because now you have individuals that may not have any symptoms that can contribute to transmission, and we have learned that in fact they do contribute to transmission."
The CDC's study also found that those infected with COVID-19 can be contagious up to 48 hours before they begin to show symptoms.
The CDC and the World Health Organization have issued guidance throughout the pandemic that healthy individuals should not wear masks to reserve the limited supply for those infected and health care workers. This new revelation that asymptotic individuals can spread the disease will most likely lead to the guidance for all everyone to wear masks in public.
China Update
As China has begun to ease travel restrictions in COVID-battered Wuhan, the nation has begun to test and report asymptomatic cases in an effort to better understand the extent of the outbreak.