Rochelle Walensky urged Americans to "hold on a little while longer" to help curb the rise in cases.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky got emotional and made an honest emotional appeal to Americans to not let up in their fight against Coronavirus. Walensky went off script and admitted she was scared that the fourth wave of the virus was going to hit America hard. She discarded a prepared speech and fought back tears as she feared the worst. "I'm going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom," said Walensky, reported Yahoo News. "We do not have the luxury of inaction. For the health of our country, we must work together now to prevent a fourth surge."
Walensky's chilling message comes after the U.S. reported a weekly average of 63,239 new Coronavirus cases per day, a 16 percent increase from a week ago, as per data from Johns Hopkins University, reported CNBC News. She said the country had the power to halt the fourth wave, especially with the vaccination rollout, but urged Americans to continue practicing health measures including wearing masks and maintaining social distance. "The thing that’s different this time is we actually have it in our power to be done with this scale of vaccination and that will be so much slower if we have another surge to deal with as well," said Walensky.
This is our warning call, America.
— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) March 30, 2021
Cases are now climbing again in a majority of states--esp across the northeast and midwest.@CDCDirector Walensky is right to be sounding the alarm. This is how surges start. pic.twitter.com/1YWCiwcVKA
"Hold on a little longer"
Walensky set aside her authority as CDC director to make a humane plea to the public. "I’m speaking today not necessarily as your CDC director, but as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter to ask you to just please hold on a little while longer. I so badly want to be done. I know you all so badly want to be done. We are just almost there, but not quite yet," she said. Many places including Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and other Northeastern states have experienced a sharp uptick in Coronavirus cases.
As a wife, mother, daughter, physician & CDC Director, I ask you to hold on a little while longer. We are almost there, but not quite yet. Continue using #COVID19 prevention methods & get vaccinated when you can so that you and others will still be here once this pandemic ends.
— Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH (@CDCDirector) March 29, 2021
Anthony Fauci, Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, echoed the CDC director's words. "We’re essentially pleading with people even though we have an urge particularly with the warm weather to just cut loose," said Fauci. "We’ve just got to hang in there a bit longer. I think the reason we’re seeing this plateauing and the increase that I hope doesn’t turn into a surge is because we are really doing things prematurely right now with regard to opening up."
"Hundreds of thousands" of deaths could have been avoided: Dr. Birx
Donald Trump's Coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx made a stunning admission that "hundreds of thousands" of deaths from the pandemic could have been avoided, reported CNN. Dr. Birx's admission points fingers at herself and the previous administration in a new CNN documentary — COVID WAR: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out. It highlighted the cost of former President Donald Trump prioritizing economic and political goals over public health. "I look at it this way. The first time we have an excuse," Birx told CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. "There were about a hundred thousand deaths that came from that original surge. All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially," she added. "In the post-mortem, we have to come out of this and learn how to do it better, the next time," said Birx.
Dr. Birx is absolutely right here -- hundreds of thousands of Covid deaths in the US were preventable. But what she hasn't acknowledged is her own complicity. pic.twitter.com/rzl8rwW2IU
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 28, 2021
She noted that her scientific colleagues understood the gravity of the crisis but White House officials repeatedly played down the crisis, which inevitably cost the country. She also revealed that she got a "very difficult" call from an angry Trump after she candidly spoke about the rise in Coronavirus cases last August. The health expert also played a part in playing down Donald Trump's dangerous comments during the heights of the pandemic. Dr. Brix's admission comes as America recently recorded more than 560,000 deaths from the pandemic. Donald Trump and the Republicans were particularly guilty of playing down the virus in the early stages of the pandemic.
You can't spin this. Ever. This was exactly one year ago. pic.twitter.com/E4ZVUSg54h
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) March 29, 2021
Disclaimer: Information about the pandemic is swiftly changing, and Women Working is committed to providing the most recent and verified updates in our articles and reportage. However, considering the frequency of developments, some of the information/data in this article may have changed since the time of publication. Therefore, we encourage you to also regularly check online resources from local public health departments, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization.
References:
https://news.yahoo.com/im-scared-cdc-director-warns-153742454.html
Cover image source: Getty Images | Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
