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WASHINGTON: US health officials on Sunday (Dec. 6) voiced alarm over the refusal of many Americans to wear masks as the nation faces a rising daily death toll from COVID-19 and Donald Trump held a packed rally. in which basic health measures were mocked.
With the launch of new vaccines expected in just a few weeks, officials cautioned against false confidence, particularly with year-end travel still ahead.
Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said it was “frustrating” to hear people “parroting that masks don’t work (and) that meetings don’t result in high-profile events.”
“This is not just the worst public health event. This is the worst event this country will face,” Birx told NBC’s Meet the Press.
“The vaccine is critical,” he said, “but it is not going to save us from this current increase.”
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Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar confirmed Sunday that the government expects 20 million people to receive vaccines from manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna by the end of the year, assuming the Food and Drug Administration approves them this week.
Moncef Slaoui, who runs the federal Operation Warp Speed vaccine program, told CBS that the vaccines could begin with 36 hours of FDA approval.
But experts expressed their exasperation that many Americans continue to ignore guidance to wear masks, practice social distancing and avoid large crowds.
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“GRIM” WEEKS LEFT AHEAD
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb predicted that the death toll in the United States, now just over 280,000, could reach 400,000 by the end of January.
“We have a bleak future ahead of us for the next six weeks,” he told CBS’s Face the Nation. “People really need to protect themselves.”
Virus cases and deaths have reached record highs in the US, and television news reports show distraught nurses struggling to hold back tears as they work in overwhelmed Covid rooms.
The last big public gathering came Saturday in Valdosta, Georgia, when President Trump held his first rally since the election, drawing thousands of people, close together and wearing few masks.
The president has long played down the severity of the pandemic, making little mention of the virus at his rally.
More than 2,500 people have died from COVID-19 each day for the past five days in the United States, the highest number since the pandemic broke out.
But since his November 3 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump has issued far more tweets challenging his defeat than addressing the virus.
Biden, who has said he will urge all Americans to wear masks for 100 days when he takes power in January, expressed doubts on Friday about the administration’s planning for the launch of the vaccine.
“There is no detailed plan that we have seen of how to get the vaccine out of a container, into an injection syringe, on someone’s arm, anyway,” he said.
When asked about it on Sunday, Azar dismissed it as “nonsense” and said on Fox that the administration had been completely transparent.
But he declined to specifically criticize plans by Trump and other senior officials to host large indoor Christmas parties.
“Our advice remains the same in any context,” he said, “which is to wash your hands, watch the distance, put on face covers when you can’t watch the distance and be careful with indoor environments.”
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