WASHINGTON: U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to make controlling the coronavirus a top priority and is likely to push for mask-wearing mandates and more fiscal stimulus to keep businesses and workers afloat. But in the two months until inauguration day on Jan. 20, skyrocketing infections could add more than 8 million more cases and 70,000 deaths, representing a potential 80% increase in infections and a 29% rise in deaths.
The only ways to change the outcome are for President Donald Trump’s outgoing administration to alter its strategy or state governments to introduce stricter and more coordinated measures. Colder weather adds to the challenge. “The epidemic is going to be worse than it was in the spring, and worse than it was for the everyday American,” said Gregg Gonsalves, a professor in epidemiology at Yale University and a health care activist. Trump has shown less involvement in the White House coronavirus task force in recent weeks as he focused on his re-election campaign and an effort to challenge votes in several states after the Nov. 3 election.
At the current daily rate of deaths, another 70,000 to 150,000 Americans may die between now and Inauguration Day, according to Reuters calculations. As of Wednesday, over 243,000 COVID-19 deaths were recorded in the United States. Economists and analysts have been reluctant to calculate how the third wave of infection could impact the U.S. economy if it continues unchecked, citing too many variables from the possibility of fiscal stimulus to renewed lockdown measures.
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