As the US coronavirus cases reach 6 million, White House Coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx believes that the people of the US can stop the spread of the virus by following social distancing and wearing face masks, as they wait for the vaccine. Just over seven months ago the US had zero coronavirus cases and now the virus has killed over 183,000 people while infecting more than 6 million people, according to Johns Hopkins University Data.
As the race to develop a vaccine is going on between the researchers, the health officials and experts believe that by following preventive measures such as avoiding crowds, practicing social distancing, and wearing masks can keep economies open and the number of US coronavirus cases low. But as the coronavirus pandemic drags on, the experts are becoming worried that the public has become complacent or fatigued in those measures.
There’s some good news as according to the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute Dr. Ashish Jha, the nation is doing better on the last day of August than they were on the first day of August. He said that the daily US coronavirus cases have come down and deaths are starting to decline, also the hospitalizations are down. He calls this good news and believes that this happened due to the smart policies in Arizona, Florida, and Texas around masking and closing bars.
Dr. Jha further added that there are still parts of the country where things are bad and even getting worse. He pointed towards Dakota and other states where there are still a lot of cases. He believes that as a Nation there are still a lot of coronavirus cases, so there’s a long way to go. Dr. Birx believes that vigilance is needed, saying that the people gathered at concerts can spread the virus in the same way as people gathered in the backyard. She said that people need to wear masks even when with their families to protect others in their household.
Though the number of US coronavirus cases are still climbing, Georgia and Florida who have shown surge previously are reporting some improvements. The Georgia Department of Public Health has for the first time in two months reported new daily cases below 1300 by reporting 1298 new coronavirus cases. Moreover, Florida reported its lowest figure of deaths in months which is 14. Neither of them reached those benchmarks since the 22nd of June, as they are among the top 5 most infected states in the US.
Dr. Birx believes the US knows how to stop the spread of the virus. She believes that the last six months have shown how important masks are and also that physical distancing is important. She said not only the virus is real, but the consequences of the virus are also real, the hospitalizations are real, and the number of people died is also real. But according to her what is also real is that there is a way to prevent its spread. Dr. Birx thinks this really needs to be a balanced message of we have power against the virus, but we need to exert our power together.