Covid death numbers are ‘real’

WASHINGTON – Dr Anthony Fauci on Sunday rebuffed President Donald Trump’s false claims that the coronavirus death toll in the United States is “exaggerated”.

“The numbers are real,” said Fauci, one of the nation’s leading infectious disease experts, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press”. “We have well over 300,000 deaths, we average 2-3,000 deaths per day.”

He told host Chuck Todd, “All you have to do, Chuck, is go into the trenches, go to the hospitals, go to the intensive care units and see. what is happening. These are real numbers, real people and real deaths. “

Fauci’s interview came in response to Trump tweet, “The number of cases and deaths of the Chinese virus is far exaggerated in the United States due to [The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s] ridiculous determination method compared to other countries, many of which report voluntarily, very inaccurately and weakly. “

Trump responded to Fauci by tweeting.Something how much Dr. Fauci is revered by the LameStream media as such a great professional, having done, they say, such an amazing job, but it works for me and the Trump administration, and I’m not in no recognized case for my work. Gee, could this just be more fake news? “

Trump has spent most of the pandemic spreading disinformation about the virus and downplaying its effects.

December was the deadliest and most infectious month of the pandemic in America – more than 77,000 people died and 6.4 million contracted the virus during the month, according to an NBC News analysis. Overall, more than 350,000 people have died from the virus and nearly 20.5 million people have been infected.

Fauci said on Sunday that the pandemic “could and probably will worsen in the next two weeks,” or “at least maintain this terribly high level of infections and deaths” in the weeks to come, as America feels all the effects of Christmas travel. holidays.

“That’s what’s happening. It’s terrible, it’s unfortunate, but it was predictable,” he said.

“Rather than sit down and throw our hands up and say, ‘Oh my God, it’s getting worse,’ we need to double down on some of the basic things we talk about all the time – the wearing of uniforms, the physical outrun and avoid gathering places and crowds, especially indoors “

Now that two vaccines have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use, there are concerns that the country is not ramping up its vaccination schedule fast enough. While Fauci admitted the country was “somewhat behind schedule,” he preached patience as the program grew.

“No excuses, we’re not where we want to be. But hopefully we’ll pick up our momentum and come back to where we want to be in terms of hugging people,” he said. -he declares.