Surgeon General Jerome Adams ‘absolutely’ expects lower death toll from coronavirus outbreak

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Tuesday said he “absolutely” expects the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus will end up lower than earlier projections from the White House of between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths.

“I feel a lot more optimistic, again, because I’m seeing mitigation work,” Dr. Adams said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I really do believe that we will come in under those projections as long as we can continue to do our part for 30 days: staying at home, avoiding unnecessary travel, not gathering in large groups.”

“I want the American people to know: There is a light at the end of this tunnel, and we feel confident if we keep doing the right thing for the rest of this month that we can start to slowly reopen in some places,” he said.

Dr. Adams pointed to Italy, Spain, Washington state, California, New York and New Jersey as areas that are starting to “flatten their curves” amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

“It’s going to be a hard and a tough week, but the American people have the power to change the trajectory of this epidemic if we come together like we have after past tragedies in this country,” he said.

Dr. Adams’ comments echo Monday statements from Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I think you’re going to see the numbers are, in fact, going to be much less than what would have been predicted by the models,” Dr. Redfield told an Arizona radio station.

Dr. Adams had said on Sunday that this week could be a “Pearl Harbor”-type moment for many Americans.

“I absolutely believe this is going to be an incredibly sad and incredibly hard week for our country, but we’ve had tough times in this country before and we always come out of it stronger,” he said on Tuesday.