Daily COVID deaths in US likely to exceed 9/11 death toll for months, CDC director says

The number of daily coronavirus deaths in the United States will likely exceed the death toll of two of America’s deadliest events for the next two or three months, according to a top health official.

The U.S. reported 3,124 daily coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University, surpassing the 3,000 mark for the first time since the pandemic began.

That’s higher than the death toll of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when 2,977 people died in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a rural area of Pennsylvania.

It’s also higher than the death toll at Pearl Harbor, where 2,403 people died in the World War II attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

“We are in the time frame now that probably for the next 60 to 90 days we’re going to have more deaths per day than we had at 9/11 or we had at Pearl Harbor,” Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said this week during a Council on Foreign Relations event, The Hill reported.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel on Thursday recommended the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use authorization, but Redfield said a vaccine won’t have an immediate impact on the death toll.

Redfield said the U.S. could have been more consistent in urging the use of face masks to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“Where I think we could have done better as a nation is actually had more consistency in messaging, among all the American public, not just our political leaders, not just our governors, but all the public (around masks),” he said.

President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday that he will issue an executive order on his first day in office that will mandate wearing masks in federal buildings, trains, buses and airplanes for the first 100 days of his term.

“I’m absolutely convinced that in 100 days we can change the course of the disease and change life in America for the better,” Biden said during a news conference.

As of Friday, the U.S. had reported more than 15.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 292,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 9:18 AM with the headline "Daily COVID deaths in US likely to exceed 9/11 death toll for months, CDC director says."