News Opinons Politics

CDC Director: Coronavirus Death Toll Will Be ‘Much, Much, Much Lower’ than Projected

Appearing Monday on AM 1030 KVOI Radio, Dr. Robert Redfield, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), predicted that the death toll from the Chinese coronavirus will be “much, much, much lower” than the models have projected due to Americans following social distancing recommendations.


Father of 10-year-old boy breaks silence after viral beach rescue: ‘No way I could ever repay him’
Trump says he ‘disagrees 100%’ with U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro over Reflecting Pool case
Assisted living sent resident to doctor’s appointment after giving him 18 shots, 5 am beer: officials
Mamdani extends deadline for NYC homeowners to seek exemption from new pied-à-terre tax
Trump immigration agenda faces setback as Obama-appointed judge issues fresh TPS stay
Israeli president says Palestinian peace ‘requires’ acceptance of Israel in warning against Mamdani
New Christian Persecution Report Shows Most Dangerous Countries on Earth for Believing in Jesus
Why Gen Z Is Breaking This Longtime Workplace Taboo
Reporter’s Notebook: Why Fauci’s 111 Fifth Amendment pleas could end up before the courts
Trump Says AI Data Centers Pledge Will Make Power Bills ‘Actually Come Down’
Parents Who Starved Their 75-Day-Old Baby to Death Will Get No Jail Time After Guilty Plea – Guess Who the Judge Is
Fauci’s Fifth fuels vow to haul him into court ‘every day’ despite Biden pardon
‘Like Graham Platner But Worse’: GOP Group Vows $42M Campaign Against Last-Minute Replacement Democrat
Study Confirms Who Is Behind Killings of Christians in Nigeria
Bipartisan pair of senators urge Rubio to release aid to African women, children at risk of Ebola


 

HOST: We were talking about some of the models, whether it’s from the imperial college guy in England or the University of Washington. Thank god some of these numbers are falling short of some of these catastrophic numbers. Tell me about the dynamic of the modeling and how it helps and influences decision making and then, when the reality comes in, how does the decision making transform?

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD: I think it’s really important. First, models are only as good as their assumptions. Obviously, there was a lot unknown about this virus. The ability to actively make a lot of assumptions was much wider than if this was an Influenza B outbreak. Second thing, I will say from a public health perspective, to me, the real value of models is to have a model and then try to understand — if I invest resources here, what does that do to the model? If I invest in intervention strategies here, what does that do to the model? It’s a way of beta testing how you’re going to respond and what it does to the different models. And models should never be used to assume that we have a number. You saw those numbers are quite staggering. You’ve got 200,000 to 2 million Americans are losing their lives before the fall. That’s a pretty staggering number.

HOST: Are throwing those kind of numbers out actually helpful because what they do is scare the hell out of everyone to social distance? Is that the purpose?


Father of 10-year-old boy breaks silence after viral beach rescue: ‘No way I could ever repay him’
Trump says he ‘disagrees 100%’ with U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro over Reflecting Pool case
Assisted living sent resident to doctor’s appointment after giving him 18 shots, 5 am beer: officials
Mamdani extends deadline for NYC homeowners to seek exemption from new pied-à-terre tax
Trump immigration agenda faces setback as Obama-appointed judge issues fresh TPS stay
Israeli president says Palestinian peace ‘requires’ acceptance of Israel in warning against Mamdani
New Christian Persecution Report Shows Most Dangerous Countries on Earth for Believing in Jesus
Why Gen Z Is Breaking This Longtime Workplace Taboo
Reporter’s Notebook: Why Fauci’s 111 Fifth Amendment pleas could end up before the courts
Trump Says AI Data Centers Pledge Will Make Power Bills ‘Actually Come Down’
Parents Who Starved Their 75-Day-Old Baby to Death Will Get No Jail Time After Guilty Plea – Guess Who the Judge Is
Fauci’s Fifth fuels vow to haul him into court ‘every day’ despite Biden pardon
‘Like Graham Platner But Worse’: GOP Group Vows $42M Campaign Against Last-Minute Replacement Democrat
Study Confirms Who Is Behind Killings of Christians in Nigeria
Bipartisan pair of senators urge Rubio to release aid to African women, children at risk of Ebola

DR. REDFIELD: I think different people may look at it in different ways in terms of transparency. CDC had models early on. We didn’t really publicize the models. We used them internally to understand deviation strategies. I think part of the importance of getting the American public’s attention that these models did, we really need the American public to be fully engaged now with great rigor and vigilance on the social distancing. As you pointed out, those models that were done, they assume only about 50 percent of the American public would pay attention to the recommendations. In fact, what we’re seeing is a large majority of the American public are taking the social distancing recommendations to heart. And I think that’s the direct consequence of why you’re seeing the numbers are going to be much, much, much lower than would have been predicted by the models.

Story cited here.

Share this article:
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter