A November 29th White House coronavirus task force report urged public health officials to circumvent state and local policies and deal independently with record-high cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, as well as fears of a surge upon a surge following thanksgiving.
The report says: “The national daily COVID incidence after Memorial Day, but before the summer surge, was fewer than 25,000 new cases/day and is now more than 180,000 new cases/day; COVID inpatients then were fewer than 30,000 but are now more than 90,000; fatalities have more than doubled.
The report warns: “We are in a very dangerous place due to the current, extremely high COVID baseline and limited hospital capacity; a further post-Thanksgiving surge will compromise COVID patient care, as well as medical care overall.”
“If state and local policies do not reflect the seriousness of the current situation, all public health officials must alert the state population directly,” the reports say.
The report suggested that public health officials make clear to the public that if they are: “over 65 or have significant health conditions, you should not enter any indoor public spaces where anyone is unmasked due to the immediate risk to your health; you should have groceries and medications delivered.”
Additionally, the report said that Americans who traveled should behave as though they have the virus. “If you are under 40, you need to assume you became infected during the Thanksgiving period if you gathered beyond your immediate household. Most likely, you will not have symptoms; however, you are dangerous to others and you must isolate away from anyone at increased risk for severe disease and get tested immediately. If you are over 65 or have significant medical conditions and you gathered outside of your immediate household, you are at significant risk for serious COVID infection; if you develop any symptoms, you must be tested immediately as the majority of therapeutics work best early in infection,” the reports say.
The task force said, “In many areas of the USA, state mitigation efforts remain inadequate, resulting in sustained transmission or a very prolonged time to peak — over seven weeks,” calling on all states and counties to “flatten the curve now in order to sustain the health system for both COVID and non-COVID emergencies.”
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