‘Up to 200,000 DEATHS’: Trump health chief Fauci predicts MILLIONS of Covid-19 cases in US

29 Mar, 2020 14:55 / Updated 11 minutes ago

Get short URL

FILE PHOTO: Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. ©  REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst 

President Trump’s Covid-19 czar Dr. Anthony Fauci has issued a dire coronavirus prediction: “Millions of cases,” and “100,000 to 200,000” deaths in the US. More than 2,200 people have already died of the deadly disease in the US.

Speaking on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ on Sunday, Fauci said that trying to predict the spread of the virus is akin to chasing a “moving target.” However, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director claimed that “between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths” may be coming. 

State of the Union

✔@CNNSotu

Dr. Anthony Fauci says there could potentially be between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths related to the coronavirus and millions of cases. “I just don’t think that we really need to make a projection when it’s such a moving target, that you could so easily be wrong,” he adds. #CNNSOTU

69

8:21 PM - Mar 29, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

67 people are talking about this

“We have a serious problem in New York, we have a serious problem in New Orleans, and we’re going to be developing serious problems in other areas,” Fauci said.

READ MORE: Residents of New York, New Jersey & Connecticut urged to avoid all ‘non-essential’ travel for 14 days

Fauci cautioned that the true toll of the Covid-19 outbreak in the US will sit somewhere between the “best case” and “worst case” predictions currently doing the rounds. However, he did not say what scenario his own prediction fell under.

Fauci has publicly disagreed with President Donald Trump on how best to respond to the coronavirus crisis. As Trump mulled imposing a strict quarantine on “hot spots” like New York and New Jersey, Fauci warned that doing so would create “a bigger difficulty” in enforcement. He told CNN on Sunday that Trump decided not to issue the quarantine order after “intensive discussions” in the White House on Saturday night.

ALSO ON RT.COM'Not necessary': Trump says he will not impose quarantine on New York, New Jersey & Connecticut

New York City, Fauci said, accounts for 56 percent of the country’s new infections.

While hundreds of thousands of deaths is a dire prediction, and stands at odds with President Trump’s optimistic tone during press briefings, Fauci has made even starker predictions before. Earlier this month, and with New York State only reporting 700 cases of the virus, Fauci appeared on CNN to warn that “it’s possible” that millions of Americans could die.