A medical expert at Johns Hopkins University is estimating at least 50,000 Americans have already contracted the coronavirus.
Notably, just 50 with the coronavirus have reportedly died in the U.S. to date. For math whizzes, the expert's low-end estimate would put the virus death rate in the U.S at 0.1% – on the high end. President Donald Trump was roundly rebuked by critics, liberal activists, and anti-Trump media for doubting the 3.4% coronavirus death rate estimates.
"Don't believe the numbers when you see, even on our Johns Hopkins website, that 1,600 Americans have the virus," Dr. Marty Makary told Yahoo Finance's "On the Move" on Friday, per The Hill.
"No, that means 1,600 got the test, tested positive. There are probably 25 to 50 people who have the virus for every one person who is confirmed."
The comments came Friday. The latest figures on active U.S. cases are 2,249.
But, saying as many as "half million" Americans might already have the coronavirus, Dr. Makary feared the U.S. is not ready to handle the virus, ringing the alarm on U.S. hospital capacity.
"We only have 100,000 ICU beds in the United States," Makary said, per the report. "We could see 200,000 new patients that need critical care up to 2 million."
The Trump administration has taken unprecedented measures in the U.S. to curb the spread of the virus that has claimed over 5,600 lives globally with 149,596 cases – a death rate of 3.7%.
"The CDC did admit to a mistake in the rollout of the testing, and let's face it — they went with the wrong testing system," Makary said, per The Hill. "It was an early decision. It lived deep within the CDC, and they have acknowledged that mistake."
Trump pointed the blame at the Obama administration for the failures of the U.S. pandemic testing system, tweeting Friday:
"For decades the @CDCgov looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about it. It would always be inadequate and slow for a large scale pandemic, but a pandemic would never happen, they hoped. President Obama made changes that only complicated things further."
Trump said 500,000 additional tests will be available next week, with drive-thru testing locations being announced Sunday night, according to The Hill.
If the U.S. death rate remains even the same, and reported cases increase, it stands to reason the coronavirus death rate will decrease and be far lower than the above reported global rate of 3.7%.