How many people are sick with the coronavirus in the United States, and when did they get sick? These are crucial questions to answer, but they have never been answered well. Archived data from the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionillustrated in the chart belowreveal that the government dramatically misunderstood what was happening in America as the outbreak began. On the last day of February, the CDC reported that 15 Americans had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
In the past week, as the countrys testing capacity has increased, officials have discovered more cases. Today, more than 17,000 people have tested positive.
That may sound like a lot. But experts believe that the United States still isnt testing enough people to detect the outbreaks true spread. The virologist Trevor Bedford has found evidence that the coronavirus began spreading in the United States in January. It has already infected approximately 87,000 Americans, he says. Heres what his estimate of the pandemics arrival in America looks likecompared with how many people we thought were sick at the time:
The truth is: We dont know how many Americans are infected with the coronavirus. The United States is a country soon to be overrun with sick people. As the positive tests for the new coronavirus have ticked upward, so, inevitably, will the deaths. A study published this week by Imperial College London predicted that unless aggressive action is taken, the coronavirus could kill 2.2 million Americans in the coming months. A day after that study was published, its lead researcher developed a dry cough and fever. He had COVID-19.
When Wuhan began burning with infections in December, the U.S. government took only illogical, inadequate actions to stop the viruss spread: It
banned foreigners from entering from China, but inconsistently monitored Americans returning from the country. The president laughed off the virus and the Democrats response to it, calling it their new hoax, which immediately polarized the
citizenrys response to precautionary public-health information. When the sparks of this conflagration hit, Seattle was aflame before anyone at the CDC had started to reach for water.
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