The bleak winter looms as the US coronavirus epidemic enters its worst phase

Washington – The first vaccines are only a few weeks away, but winter looks bleak for the United States, where the coronavirus outbreak is worse than ever and 150,000 more people could die by February.

The death rate has returned to spring levels, far exceeding 2,000 per day and taking the total to over 273,000, according to a tracker run by Johns Hopkins University.

Despite medical advances that have allowed doctors to better treat the disease, meaning more patients can stay at home, there are far more people in the hospital than during previous peaks.

The figure is currently 100,000 people, according to the Covid Tracking Project, up from 60,000 in April and July.

And unlike when the virus first entered the United States and was limited to certain hot spots, it is now everywhere.

Infection-tracking dashboards show nearly the entire map of the United States illuminated in red, indicating that the situation is critical.

Yet few states are planning new lockdowns and restrictions are being imposed in a patchwork fashion, in the absence of a national strategy by President Donald Trump, whose focus has been on vaccines.

“The reality is that December, January and February are going to be tough times,” Robert Redfield, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said Wednesday.

“I actually believe it will be the most difficult time in this nation’s public health history,” he added, warning that up to 450,000 may have died by February.

According to an average of predictive models compiled by the CDC, the country is expected to exceed 300,000 deaths by the end of the year.

But even that number hides the reality: including deaths misdiagnosed or indirectly caused, 300,000 were surpassed in October.

After much delay, the mandates of the masks are in effect in most of the country after the recalcitrant governors finally gave in.

But there are hardly any lockouts statewide for businesses, restaurants, and places of worship, although they are subject to certain conditions.

The two exceptions are in California and Ohio.

Some local jurisdictions have taken action, restricting restaurants to outdoor dining or closing schools like in New York.

Cities like Chicago have asked residents to stay home, but these are not mandatory orders.

America’s decentralized system of government is a source of fierce pride, but it has been a weak point in this health crisis, according to leading infectious disease scientist Anthony Fauci, who said he was appalled that so many places where people congregate remain open. .

“When someone wants to temporarily close a bar, it’s not a bad thing to do,” he told Fox News Wednesday.

The Republican governor of Florida, a state that appears to have passed its worst peak in November, has ruled out further restrictions.

The Trump administration plans to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of December pending approval of Pfizer-BionTech and Moderna-NIH vaccines and 100 million people by February.

But experts warn that COVID-19 restrictions are still needed for some time.

“A vaccine will be the most important tool we have to fight COVID, but it won’t change things overnight,” tweeted Tom Frieden, former director of the CDC.

The country can begin to return to normal when population immunity is achieved, around April, May or June, when 70 percent to 75 percent of Americans are immunized, Fauci said.

They must first, however, want to get the vaccine.

To persuade vaccine skeptics, former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have said they will get their shots on live television.