U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on Sunday warned this Holy Week will be giving Americans “our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9-11 moment” as the coronavirus ravages the nation.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Adams said the public does, however, have “the power to change the trajectory” of the outbreak.
“This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives,” he said.
“This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9-11 moment,” he said. “Only it’s not going to be localized, it’s going to be happening all over the country.”
Adams added “I want America to understand that … the public along with the state and federal government have the power to change the trajectory of this epidemic.”
The United States set a disturbing global record on Saturday with the number of deaths from coronavirus leaping by 1,497 in just one day taking the death toll past 8,500.
Nearly half of those fatalities were in New York City, where the death toll reached 2,624 and hospital corridors were littered with body bags containing the latest victims.
Adams, pressed on why President Donald Trump won't issue a blanket stay-at-home order, stopped short of supporting such a move, saying he believed those in nine states without that local order are complying by staying at home anyway. "The governors are intensely protective of their right to decide what’s right for their states and rightly so," he said.
"No matter where you are stay at home," he added. "We want a month but at least give us a week or two if you can … whatever you can give us to get to this peak and start to come down the other side."
Trump said Saturday that the United States was heading into what could be its “toughest” weeks as coronavirus cases swell nationwide. He warned states not to inflate their needs for critical medical equipment.
"There will be a lot of death, unfortunately. There will be death,” Trump said in a somber start to his daily briefing on the pandemic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the coming week is “going to be shocking to some."
“But that’s what is going to happen before it turns around, so just buckle down," Fauci said on CBS's “Face the Nation.”
Fauci said that the rate of new cases will determine whether the United States is putting the worst behind it.
“We’ve seen that in Italy,” Fauci said. “We’re going to hopefully be seeing that in New York very soon and that’s the first sign of that plateau and coming down.”
Fauci also warned that unless the world gets the virus under control, it will “assume a seasonal nature.”
“We need to be prepared that, since it unlikely will be completely eradicated from the planet, that as we get into next season, we may see the beginning of a resurgence," Fauci said. “That’s the reason why we’re pushing so hard in getting our preparedness much better than it was.”
While most states have adopted restrictions on people's movement, a few states have declined to order residents to stay home. Adams was asked on NBC's “Meet the Press" if they should join the rest of the country.
“Ninety percent of Americans are doing their part, even in the states where they haven’t had a shelter in place," Adams said. “But if you can’t give us 30 days, governors, give us, give us a week, give us what you can, so that we don’t overwhelm our health care systems over this next week."
Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.
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