Dr. Marc Siegel: Coronavirus, what went wrong? Any review must include role of health agencies

Do you remember when President Trump traveled to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention early last month and stood together with health leaders? Comparisons were made then between the emerging coronavirus and influenza.

These comparisons were meant to illustrate that influenza is a proven killer, with 30,000 to 80,000 deaths per year on average, and in fact, it killed 80,000 in the U.S. just two years ago. The comparisons were not meant to minimize the new virus, but to discuss it in terms of hypotheticals in order to allay fears by association.

But it soon turned out that this virus was far more contagious than the flu, that it caused a nasty immune-driven pneumonia in a fairly large minority of cases, and without a proven treatment or vaccine, our hospitals were soon overwhelmed.

Unfortunately, that presidential meeting at the CDC also served to illustrate a major problem in the U.S. response to COVID-19.

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https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dr-marc-siegel-coronavirus-what-went-wrong-any-review-must-include-role-of-health-agencies