Gottlieb says US could hit 300,000 COVID-19 deaths by year-end

Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Wednesday that the United States could reach 300,000 COVID-19 deaths by the end of 2020 if the country’s death rate does not improve.

“Right now, we have about 1,000 victims a day, so if we don’t change that trajectory, you could do the math and see where we are by the end of the year,” said Gottlieb. President TrumpDonald John Trump More than a dozen people injured in shootings near Chicago funeral home Players of the Cleveland Indians meet with team leaders to discuss the possible name change Pelosi calls the coronavirus the ‘Trump virus’ MOREThe head of the FDA told “Squawk Box” on MSNBC.

According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, more than 142,000 people in the US have died from the coronavirus, most of any country in the world. Currently, the number of deaths per 100,000 people in the country is 43.30, the tenth highest in the world. The official positive case death rate is around 3.6 percent, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this week that the actual number of cases in the US could be up to 10 times. greater than the official number.

With more than 3.9 million confirmed cases of the virus, the country could pass 4 million cases by the end of the week. No country has more cases than the United States.

Gottlieb’s comments come after Trump changed his tune about the pandemic on Tuesday, saying it would likely “get worse before it gets better.” The President also encouraged all Americans to wear masks in public. Trump previously said he doesn’t mind wearing a face mask, though he’s rarely been seen doing it.

The former Trump administration official noted that the U.S. goal should be to limit transmission of COVID-19.

“We have the specter right now of parts of this country where local school boards are making the decision to close schools, but bars and restaurants are still open,” said Gottlieb. “We need to make a decision about what is important to us and what we are willing to sacrifice right now until we get to the other side of this.”