One step forward, 2 steps back: Harvard's Dr. Thomas Tsai assesses Trump's response to COVID-19, and tells us his fears and hopes about the months ahead

10:24 PM

  • Dr. Thomas Tsai, of the Harvard Global Health Institute, spoke to Business Insider about where the United States stands in the fight against COVID-19 and President Donald Trump's claim to be leading the world's best response.
  • "It's as if we are taking one step forward and two steps back," Tsai said of the US response to the pandemic. "We started off with a peak, we settled for a plateau, and we ended up with a mountain range."
  • "We're breaking records every single day on state-level and national-level positive tests. What that means is that in one to two weeks from now, those record numbers of cases may translate to an increasing number of hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and, unfortunately, even fatalities."
  • Dr. Tsai said President Donald Trump's approach has left much to be desired. "Right now, at the highest peak of cases that we've had, it's also been where the federal government has been most absent, where there has been no White House coronavirus task force briefing."
  • "This pandemic has clearly shown the failure of a patchwork response and the result of a vacuum in terms of a national coordinated strategy."
  • He faulted leadership in some states, such as Florida, for being unwilling to close down when necessary.
  • "Politicians are unwilling to dial things back. They're only willing to sort of keep it from moving forward. Clearly, in the states where the pandemic has gotten out of control, a limited shutdown is needed to prevent hospitals from being overrun."
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Not only are a record number of Americans testing positive for COVID-19, but, contra President Donald Trump's false claim that the US has the lowest mortality rate in the world, more and more of them are dying, even with improvements in care. In the South, former success stories, such as Florida and Texas, are seeing a surge in infections — the consequence, experts say, of reopening their economies without first building up the capacity to test, trace, and quarantine.

Over 131,000 people have now died from COVID-19, which is certainly an undercount, not including those who died without ever being tested, nor those who were unable to get treatment for other disorders as a result of hospitals being overrun by a pandemic. Fourteen states have seen a double-digit increase in their coronavirus mortality rate over the last week, according to a count from The Washington Post, and, by the end of the month, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects the death toll to be as high as 160,000.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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