United States ... The Most COVID-Suffused Nation on Earth

"I do think that we're going to have a third act of this virus in the fall and the winter and it's likely to be a more pervasive spread in a broader part of the country."

"Hopefully this virus will start to dissipate in the summer [next year, so that the timing of vaccine availability] isn't going to make that much of a difference because the virus won't be transferring as readily by then."

(former) U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb 

"We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter, because it's not going to be easy."

"The idea of 200,000 deaths is really very sobering, and in some respects, stunning. We do have within our capability -- even before we get a vaccine, which we will get reasonably soon -- we have the capability by doing things that we have been speaking about for so long, that could prevent the transmission, and by preventing transmission, ultimately preventing the morbidity and mortality that we see."

Dr.Anthony Fauci, immunologist, director, National Institutes of Health

 

"[Americans are in for] the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we've ever had [amidst concerns over a possible] twindemic [of COVID-19 cases alongside the seasonal flu overwhelming hospitals]."

Robert Redfield, director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

A healthcare worker interacts with motorists at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing facility in Dallas.  (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News via AP)

The dismally expected mark of 200,000 Americans struck down by COVID-19 seemed to take no time at all from the time the SARS-CoV-2 virus arrived with a roar, plunging the United States into lockdown, devastating its economy, and necessitating closed borders in a hapless, too-late effort to control a disease whose course puzzled and continues to puzzle, the global medical community. Just as the stride and affect of the novel coronavirus has impacted the global community on a sweeping scale, the variations and complications of the hugely contagious virus grows more venomously intriguing the more that is discovered about its trajectory and outcomes.

From its initial impact centering on a handful of epicentres it has continued to travel and to grow without restraint as the medical community tries to second-guess its unfolding variations in symptoms and after-effects. Every time there seems to be a diminishing effect and hope grows that a level of control has been achieved, it flares anew, dashing hopes of recovery. Its impact and its spread continues unabated and while it smoulders and flares, thoughts turn to impending winter when people will be forced by weather conditions into interiors, leaving the relative safety of the outdoors.

An average of over 800 people daily succumb to the effects of the virus at the present time in the United States. In Australia, fewer than 15 cases are seen daily as is the case in Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy and the United Kingdom. All of whom have their own concerns at steadily rising cases of COVID. The U.S. reports close to 40,000 new infections dailym representing the highest case number in the developed world for the third-most-populous country in the world, even though new cases represent a 50 percent reduction from the July infection peak.

 

 

The novel coronavirus has infected over 30.98 million people worldwide and of that number 958,453 have perished from its deadly effects. Over 210 countries and territories have reported infections in their populations since December 2019 when the first reports of mysterious respiratory cases were identified in Wuhan, China. In about 20 out of 50 states in the U.S. cases are on an upward trend. Former epicentres of New Jersey and New York where cases have declined for months are now reporting an increase in cases.

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb speaks of his concerns over a third wave which might be more diffused and begin to spread in a wider swath across the country. And while he doesn't believe there will be a vaccine available until the end of the second quarter or the third quarter of 2021 for general inoculation, his professional experience clashes with that of the country's president who boasts with confidence that the nation will have a vaccine before year's end, things under control by April 2021, with an effective vaccination in wide use.

In Britain, the British government's chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance, and Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England have stated that the number of COVID-19 cases is doubling every seven days. "If, and that's quite a big if, but if that continues unabated ... you would end up with something like 50,000 cases in the middle of October, per day", warned Dr.Vallance. These numbers could result in over 200 deaths daily.