Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), yesterday spoke to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and pointed to the huge deficit in health investment as key to the toll the COVID-19 pandemic is taking in the U.S. He admitted that “I wasn’t prepared to understand how little investment had been made in the core capabilities of public health…. There’s a huge lack of investment, which I hope this pandemic will change,” he said. Redfield estimated the health crisis has cost the U.S. at least $8 trillion.
He went on to warn that the U.S. in the next few months will be facing the most difficult public health crisis in its history. “The reality is December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult in the public health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that’s going to be put on our health-care system.” He warned that “the mortality concerns are real. And I do think unfortunately, before we see February, we could be close to 450,000 Americans [who] have died from this virus.”
