"I think in some of the metro areas we were late in getting people to follow the 15-day guidelines," the White House coronavirus response coordinator said on "TODAY."
The White House coronavirus response coordinator said Monday that she is "very worried about every city in the United States" and projects 100,000 to 200,000 American deaths as a best case scenario.
In an interview on "TODAY," Dr. Deborah Birx painted a grim message about the expected fatalities, echoing that they could hit more than 2 million without any measures, as coronavirus cases continue to climb throughout the country.
"I think everyone understands now that you can go from five to 50 to 500 to 5,000 cases very quickly," Birx said.
"I think in some of the metro areas we were late in getting people to follow the 15-day guidelines," she added.
Birx said the projections by Dr. Anthony Fauci that U.S. deaths could range from 1.6 million to 2.2 million is a worst case scenario if the country did "nothing" to contain the outbreak, but said even "if we do things almost perfectly," she still predicts up to 200,000 U.S. deaths.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reiterated Monday on CNN that "I don't want to see it, I'd like to avoid it, but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw 100,000 deaths."
News Source: nbcnews