Former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden, says the country is not doing enough to keep the Covid-19 pandemic afloat.
“We may be sick and tired of staying home, but the virus hasn’t bothered us to seem sick,” Frieden told CNN on Tuesday.
Frieden is currently the CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global public health organization Vital Strategies.
The increase in the number of cases in parts of the U.S. is not the result of the country doing additional investigations, as some Republicans have claimed, including President Donald Trump. Instead, the numbers are rising because there are more diseases and it is spreading, Frieden said.
“The U.S. response is just lagging behind,” Frieden said. “We’re not doing what we need to do to be physically distant. We’re not across the country to gradually increase the demand for contacts as needed by preventing cases from exploding into clusters and outbreaks.”
Frieden compared the U.S. response to South Korea’s.
“The facts don’t lie,” Frieden said. “120,000 Americans live from this virus. The last number is 270 people, of whom died in South Korea. “
According to Johns Hopkins University, South Korea has reported 281 deaths from coronavirus, while in the U.S. there are more than 121,000.
Countries around the world have a lower infection rate because they are better at examining, finding and isolating the sick, Frieden said. He believes there should be a better national response in the US.
In the absence of an appropriate national response, individuals can do something to reduce the number of cases, he said.
“Remember the three W’s Wear a mask, wash your hands, watch your distance,” Frieden said. “If you do these three things, we can keep the virus in place.”
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