The U.S. is "10 days away from the hospitals getting creamed" by the coronavirus outbreak, former homeland security adviser Tom Bossert, who advised President Donald Trump on pandemic response, told NBC News on Tuesday.
Bossert, who was the top Trump Administration official on pandemic response before his firing, also wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post published Monday that "officials must pull the trigger on aggressive interventions," which "put off and ease the peak burden on hospitals and other healthcare infrastructure."
He goes on to suggest: "School closures, isolation of the sick, home quarantines of those who have come into contact with the sick, social distancing, telework, and large-gathering cancellations must be implemented before the spread of the disease in any community reaches 1%."
Several National Security Council officials whose jobs related to disease outbreaks have left the administration and not been replaced, according to NBC News. Rear Adm. Tim Ziemer, the senior director for global health security and biodefense, stepped down last year, while Dr. Luciana Borio, the council's director for medical and biodefense preparedness, left the year before. None of these officials, including Bossert, have been replaced.
"Simply put, as evidence of human-to-human transmission becomes clear in a community, officials must pull the trigger on aggressive interventions," Bossert wrote. "Time matters. Two weeks of delay can mean the difference between success and failure. Public health experts learned this in 1918 when the Spanish flu killed 50 million to 100 million people around the globe. If we fail to take action, we will watch our healthcare system be overwhelmed."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.