NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- New York City is at risk of a "Wuhan-style outbreak," former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Sunday morning, referencing the Chinese city that has widely been regarded as ground zero for the potentially-deadly virus.
An outbreak of such intensity in a city like New York would "overwhelm its system," he said during an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation."
He said there are not enough medical supplies "if we have a Wuhan-style outbreak in a major city or multiple cities, which is my concern that we can have an outbreaks of that proportion in multiple U.S. cities."
He said New York State, in particular, wouldn't have enough beds for a massive outbreak.
Coronavirus originated in Wuhan and killed more than 3,000 people in mainland China.
Health officials say China's coronavirus epidemic had passed its peak as cases continue to spread to other areas of the world. "There's ways to avert it, but that's the risk that we face right now," Gottlieb said, adding that the U.S. will "certainly" have tens of thousands of virus cases. He said research shows there is likely 10 - 40,000 cases currently distributed across the country.
