On Saturday, the number of lives lost to Covid-19 in the U.S. topped 200,000. Experts say it didn’t have to be that way. “This didn’t have to happen,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Tens of thousands of people would not have died if the U.S. response had been more effective.” Now, many experts are making another ominous prediction: A surge in the number of new infections in the fall and winter, combined with growing fatigue over social distancing and other public health measures, could result in more than 415,000 deaths in the U.S. by January. |