Dr Peter Hotez echoes Trump's warning on coronavirus surge: 'Will get worse before it gets better'
'This is a tough time for the nation, but I think we can do this if we put our mind to it'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Dr. Peter Hotez said Wednesday that the public health crisis is likely to "get worse before it gets better," a day after President Trump issued the same warning as cases surge in many parts of the country.
In an interview on "Bill Hemmer Reports," Hotez said he agreed with Trump's prediction, and confirmed what many Americans feared all along: the coronavirus will continue to spread before it can properly be contained.
TRUMP: CORONAVIRUS WILL 'GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It is still climbing in many parts of the South, so we will have to look at what kind of containment measures will be needed in order to bring this back down," Hotez said. "It will get worse before it gets better, but then figuring out between the White House and the governors how to do this is going to be paramount."
In his first official press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic since April, Trump on Tuesday admitted that the crisis is likely to worsen and urged all Americans to wear masks in public.
“It will get worse before it gets better,” Trump said of the pandemic that has infected close to 4 million Americans. “That’s something I don’t like saying but it is.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hotez said that while masks "can really slow" human-to-human transition, the preventative face-covering might not be enough to combat the troubling case surge gripping the South.
"That’s the big question," he said, "This is the thing the governors are all struggling with, whether we need to go to the next step now or next measure," he said, adding "these are going to be a critical couple of weeks."
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hotez, who serves as the dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, said he has seen some "terrible tragedy" among the impoverished in his state, many of whom have no choice but to work on site and expose themselves to the highly contagious virus.
"That is heartbreaking, the stories we are seeing," he said, adding "this is a tough time for the nation, but I think we can do this if we put our mind to it."
Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.