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“No matter how you measure it, that’s not a good thing,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said last week. “We are seeing 40,000 new cases a day. That is unacceptable and that is what we have to analyze before entering the most problematic winter.”
“We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately,” Trump tweeted early Friday. “We will get out of this TOGETHER!”
‘We are approaching a crisis’
If 95% of Americans wore masks, about 96,000 lives could be saved by January, according to projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
It also projects that more than 370,000 Americans will have died in January. More than 208,000 have already died in the US since the start of the pandemic, and more than 7.3 million have been infected.
States that set Covid records
Local leaders in the US are emphasizing similar warnings, with 25 states reporting more new cases of Covid-19 than the previous week.
On Friday, Kentucky reported 1,039 new cases of Covid-19, the second highest number of new cases the state has reported since the pandemic began, Gov. Andy Beshear said in prerecorded comments he shared on his Facebook account.
The state has seen the highest four-day period of new cases in the past four days, Beshear said.
“This week is going to break last week’s record for number of cases. We have to do better,” the governor said. “It’s very real and the situation is getting very dangerous in Kentucky.”
Beshear wore a mask as he recorded his message, saying he was wearing one “because the climbing here in Kentucky continues to get worse and we have to wear this. All of us.”
Amid Alarming Trends, Concerns for Schools
Meanwhile, as US communities report concerning Covid-19 trends, more students have returned to class.
Still, de Blasio defended what he called a successful return to school and encouraged parents to sign waivers that will allow their children to be tested monthly, with testing beginning next week.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday that there are 1,258 positive cases of Covid-19 among students and teachers across the state.
In Connecticut, where some communities are reporting an increase in Covid-19 cases, more than 130 students and school staff tested positive for the virus last week among more than 600,000 students and staff, Governor Ned Lamont said.
“Almost everyone who tested positive, that didn’t happen in school, that didn’t happen in the classroom, that happened off campus,” Lamont said.
“Maybe a party, maybe some sports, but that’s it, maybe the classroom is one of the safest places you can be.”
Diversity Matters in Vaccine Trials, Expert Says
But as companies test their vaccines, it is key that a diverse group of Americans, including the elderly, participate in ongoing clinical trials, said Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, this week. USA
In vaccine development guidelines released in June, the FDA discussed the importance of including different populations in those trials, Hahn told the National Consumers League.
“We have made it clear that our expectation is that the data we receive is generalizable to all Americans,” he added.
That point, he said, is very important to the agency.
The commissioner’s comments come amid an effort by health officials to help assure Americans that the agency’s Covid-19 clearance and approval process meets the highest scientific standards and will not be influenced by the politics.
“If we approve or authorize the vaccine, the public must have complete confidence in that decision,” Hahn said this week.
CNN’s Shelby Lin Erdman, Kristina Sgueglia, and Amanda Watts contributed to this report.
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