As President Donald Trump continues to try and downplay the threat posed by coronavirus to the United States, leaked documents from a meeting of the American Hospital Association (AHA) in February paint a terrifying picture of what may actually be ahead for the country as the virus continues to spread.
“US hospitals are preparing for 96 million coronavirus infections and nearly half a million deaths from the outbreak, leaked documents have revealed.
“The spread of the deadly disease could be far worse than officials claim, with 480,000 Americans expected to die from the virus and 4.8 million hospitalized, according to a presentation hosted by The American Hospital Association (AHA) in February.
“This puts the crisis on a level more than 10 times greater than that seen in a severe flu season.”
Dr. James Lawler, a professor from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, made a presentation of the expected infections and deaths at the AHA meeting. The slides he brought also urged hospitals to get ready for a large number of patients suffering from coronavirus.
The elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions are most at risk, according to the documents, which were obtained by Business Insider. Those over age 80 have a 14.8 percent chance of dying if they contract the infection, according to slides from the AHA meeting. That number decreases with age:
“Those aged 70-79 and 60-69 are still placed at a significant risk, with 8% and 3.6% mortality rates respectively.
“Lawler also estimated that people with heart conditions have a one in 10 chance of dying from the disease, compared to the less than one in a 100 chance among healthy individuals with no pre-existing medical conditions.”
And Dr. Lawler isn’t the only medical professional to warn that coronavirus is spreading much faster than had first been estimated.
Professor Marc Lipsitch from Harvard University recently told The Atlantic that up to 70 percent of the world’s population will be infected with coronavirus over the course of the next year.
Despite those warnings, President Trump said Sunday that all is well and there’s no need for Americans to worry, tweeting out:
We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus. We moved VERY early to close borders to certain areas, which was a Godsend. V.P. is doing a great job. The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to make us look bad. Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 8, 2020
Featured Image Via NBC News
