The coronavirus has killed more people in the United States than the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.
COVID-19 has caused the deaths of 3,415 Americans as of Tuesday afternoon, while the 9/11 attacks killed 2,977 at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and aboard the four planes that were hijacked that day. The coronavirus also has surpassed the number of deaths caused by Hurricane Maria, which killed an estimated 2,975.
The majority of deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. have been in New York, New Jersey, and Washington State, where COVID-19 was first detected in the country. Wyoming and Hawaii have reported no fatalities from the virus.
White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx told NBC’s “Today” show that the projections made by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, which said that the U.S. deaths could be anywhere from 1.6 million to 2.2 million, are what would happen if the country did “nothing” in response to the outbreak. Birx said that “if we do things almost perfectly,” as many as 100,000 to 200,000 Americans could die from the virus.
"I think everyone understands now that you can go from five to 50 to 500 to 5,000 cases very quickly," she said.
"I think in some of the metro areas we were late in getting people to follow the 15-day guidelines," Birx added.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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