Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said Monday that the death toll from the novel Chinese coronavirus will be "much, much lower" than projections due to Americans practicing social distancing.
During an interview with AM 1030 KVOI's "WakeUp Tucson," Redfield said that because Americans are following the social distancing guidelines set forth by the Trump administration, the projected death toll numbers of more than 200,000 in the U.S. will likely be much lower.
Asked if releasing the models with the high death toll projections was used as a scare tactic, Redfield responded:
"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 ... 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."