Here’s the latest projection of the US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic:
The top government scientists battling the coronavirus estimated Tuesday that the deadly pathogen could kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans, in spite of the social distancing measures that have closed schools, banned large gatherings, limited travel and forced people to stay in their homes….The conclusions generally match those from similar models by public health researchers around the globe.
As dire as those predictions are, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx said the number of deaths could be much higher if Americans do not follow the strict guidelines to keep the virus from spreading, and they urged people to take the restrictions seriously.
This strikes me as about right. I am optimistically hoping for no more than 150,000 deaths, based entirely on my belief that Americans are going to be pretty good about complying with countermeasures for at least a couple of months. If I’m wrong about that, the number could go much higher.
