Experts in the News

"The acceleration of the death rate could go up higher as hospital staff get overwhelmed ... This is all a consequence of transmission out of control," health policy fellow Peter Hotez said of the "untenable" situation in Houston and beyond. "The bigger issue is that there is no plan for the country," Hotez said. "The entire southern half of the country is in a health crisis. But the problem is that we're not getting any federal guidance or leadership. Without us having a national roadmap, it's hard to do the details. I point fingers at the lack of coherent federal response."

As the coronavirus outbreak picks up speed in Houston, fellow Peter Hotez said state and local leaders must intervene. "We have to learn our lesson. We have to redo everything that we did. As frustrating as it is, we have to go back to containment mode," he said. In a separate interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Hotez said the lack of a federal plan makes the response more difficult. The impact of the pandemic on low-income neighborhoods is a "humanitarian catastrophe," he said. Watch the interview here.

"Dr. Fauci said the next couple of weeks are crunch time, but I would say it's the next couple of days," said fellow Peter Hotez of the surge in coronavirus cases. "We've already let this thing go on for too long, and the cases [in Houston and Texas] are rising vertically." Hotez called for immediate action by state and local leaders to contain the virus. 

"We are now projecting that our intensive care units will fill up over the next two weeks. And the reason that's significant is because we know as ICUs start to fill up, mortality goes up," fellow Peter Hotez stated.

The trajectory of new cases shows the urgent need to expand Covid-19 testing and contact tracing, said health policy fellow Peter Hotez.  Some models have “predicted this rise, but then projected the increase will accelerate even further as we progress through the summer.”