(Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis)
The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that a possible "second wave" of the novel coronavirus could be far worse compared to the ongoing phase of the pandemic.
Government leaders thus must be more prepared and well equipped for such a grim scenario even as some states are planning to reopen their economies, CDC Director Robert Redfield told The Washington Post in an in-depth interview, Tuesday.
There is a potential that the lethality of the virus on the economy for the next winter season will "actually be even more difficult" than the one we are experiencing, Redfield said. "When I have said this to others, they just kind of put their head back, they don't understand what I mean," he stressed.
Redfield pointed out that two coinciding coronavirus outbreaks would overwhelm the nation's medical infrastructure even further compared to the current crisis, which has been marked by shortages in emergency devices like respirators, test kits and PPEs (personal protective equipment).
Redfield made public his grim evaluation after labeling anti-lockdown demonstrations and calls to reopen states by US President Donald Trump as 'not helpful'.
The CDC chief also disclosed an 'alternative workforce' comprised of Census Bureau personnel and Peace Corps volunteers could be deployed as contact tracers in the next few months.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Missouri, Alabama and North Carolina on Tuesday to demand city officials to end the lockdowns and reopen the states for business.
Also on Tuesday, a malaria drug that has been touted by Trump to combat the novel virus showed no benefits in a large study of its effectiveness in the country's veterans medical facilities. In fact, more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine were recorded compared to those who received regular care, researchers disclosed.
The nationwide research was not a foolproof experiment. But with 368 subjects, it is by far the biggest study of hydroxychloroquine, with or without the inclusion of antibiotic azithromycin, for Covid-19. The virus has killed over 44,000 people in the US, based on data by the Johns Hopkins University.
While the current pandemic has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Americans, there is a growing fear that the coronavirus could be a repeat of the flu crisis in 1918, which saw a second wave more lethal than the first.
Redfield said that authorities must highlight the need to continue the practice of social distancing as states slowly lift stay-at-home orders, and ramp up each state's capacity to identify infected persons through accurate testing and trace back others they had come in contact with.
