Dr. Mokdad on coronavirus: The worst is behind us
Dr. Ali Mokdad, who has produced coronavirus models, forecasts the spread of the virus.
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The University of Washington professor behind one of the most influential modelings of the coronavirus pandemic told "Bill Hemmer Reports" Tuesday that "the worst is behind us as a country."
"As I said before, many states are seeing a decline. Some states were delayed [implementing] social distancing measures. We see a peak later and that will come down later," Dr. Ali Mokdad told Hemmer. "What we are seeing right now is a country ... really making progress and people, Americans, have stayed at home and have helped us really contain this pandemic."
THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK STATE-BY-STATE
The latest model from UW's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projected the outbreak to kill 68,841 Americans by Aug. 4 of this year. The peak daily death toll of 2,150 Americans was projected to have been reached Monday.
Hemmer pressed Mokdad about the model's projection that no Americans will die in the current outbeak after June 27.
"The model is still tracking very well [in terms of] the mortality in the U.S. And actually... you're showing an average," Mokdad said. "For some states... that'll be much earlier."
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Mokdad said his model shows some places may be be able to get businesses open again as long as testing is bolstered.
"Certain states are ready to consider returning to business much faster than others," Mokdad said. "As long as we are able to make sure we have in place the testing and the capacity to trace all the cases and the contacts."
White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that the U.S. does not have the testing and tracing procedures necessary to safely begin reopening on May 1 saying the target may be a “bit” too optimistic.
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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