Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation.
A member of President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, Celine Gounder, is warning that more people will die from the coronavirus in the coming months due to Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the election.
Gounder, an epidemiologist, warned that the rollout for a coronavirus vaccine will suffer as a result of the Trump White House’s delays in initiating an orderly presidential transition.
“The longer we wait on transition the more people will get infected and die,” Gounder said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.
Formal approval from General Services Administration (GSA) head Emily Murphy is required before any transition processes can begin. But Murphy has so far not made any statement acknowledging Biden’s win.
“The fact that the GSA has not followed through with ascertainment of the election results is really a major impediment to us because we’re not able to be on the inside of these very important discussions in terms of how these different vaccines are going to be distributed,” Gounder said.
Distributing the vaccine will be a huge undertaking, Gounder insisted, one that would be better executed if both the incoming and outgoing administrations could coordinate on it.
“The logistics of vaccinating 330 million Americans over the coming year or more is really a massive undertaking unlike anything people in this country have seen since the days of the polio vaccine,” Gounder added.
Gounder’s comments came as the U.S. recorded the highest number of new coronavirus cases in a single day, with 187,428 new infections reported on that day alone. Thursday also saw the highest number of deaths within a 24-hour period since the start of May, with 1,962 having died from COVID-19 within a single reporting day.
More than 11.8 million cases and 252,373 deaths from COVID-19 have been recorded in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic.
Health models are projecting that this winter will be worse. According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, by January 1, the U.S will reach 2,530 deaths per day under the current circumstances.
The U.S. could bring that number down to 1,542 deaths per day if masks are worn universally until the end of the year, the health model shows.
Gounder has promoted masks as a way to combat the spread of coronavirus on her social media profiles. “Masks are one of the most important things we can do to prevent transmission of coronavirus and protect the economy,” she tweeted last week, adding that “politicizing masks,” as Trump has done in the past, is a lot like “politicizing toilet paper.”
An urgent fundraising appeal: 7 Days to raise $40,000
Thank you for reading Truthout today. We have a brief message before you go —
Unfortunately, donations are down for Truthout at a time when media is under immense pressure. Trump is arresting journalists, Big Tech is censoring independent news, and economic conditions for media have been worsening for years.
Simultaneously, movement media is vital in the fight against Trump’s authoritarian reign. Our mandate to tell the truth, share strategies for resistance, and speak against fascism is ever more urgent in this deluge of political censorship. Yet, we are struggling to meet our publishing costs when our work is so urgently needed.
If you can support Truthout with a one-time or monthly donation, you will make a significant impact on our work. Please give today during our fundraiser (7 days left).