U.S. Coronavirus Deaths: 15 Medical Experts Predict What 2021 Will Bring
To date, the United States has witnessed more than 356,000 deaths over the past eleven months of the pandemic—by far the highest total for any country worldwide. Here is what 15 medical experts told us what could come next.
Dr. Perry N. Halkitis, Dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health
“Of course, there will be a rise in deaths. First, we have detected up to 400,000 cases in a single day on January 3. If we assume a death rate of 1 to 2 percent, then 4,000 to 8,000 of those people will die. Death rates will also likely be exacerbated by the inability of hospitals to accommodate the sick.”
Dr. Pavitra Roychoudhury, Instructor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington
“The case numbers are grim, and I think they likely represent the effects of gatherings over the holidays, since cases lag events, and deaths lag cases. … Intuitively, we usually expect numbers to stabilize slightly after the holiday effect has passed. However, this may be complicated by the slower than expected rollout of vaccines as well as the arrival and spread of the (new) variant, which is thought to be more transmissible than other circulating variants.”
Dr. Jason Keonin, Physician and Surgeon at Northwest Iowa Surgeons PC
“I would expect (the death rate) to rise after the holidays, but it’s also possible in the next few months that we might see the vaccine start to have a positive effect on the incidence and prevalence of COVID, so hopefully, we do see some improvement. Those are staggering numbers, probably preventable but that ship has sailed already. Not sure what the ceiling for that number could be.”
Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.
Image: Reuters