Dr. Birx Says Coronavirus Surge is ‘Very Serious’: What We Have is ‘Three New Yorks’

White House coronavirus task force expert Dr. Deborah Birx warned that the coronavirus surge is “very serious,” likening it to “three New Yorks” — the state with the highest death toll by far during the pandemic.

On Friday morning’s edition of NBC’s Today Show, anchor Savannah Guthrie summed up the grim pandemic stats — over 4 million cases in the U.S., over a thousand dead per day — and said “You’re the head of the task force here, the president says it’s going to get worse before it’s going to get better, how much worse?”

“Well it really depends on the next set of cities,” Birx said. “I mean we already are starting to see some plateauing in these critically four states that have suffered under the last four weeks, so Texas, California, Arizona, and Florida, those major metros and throughout their counties.”

“And I just want to make it clear to the American public, what we have right now are essentially three New Yorks with these three major states,” Dr. Birx said, although she continued to speak about surges in four states.

“And so we’re really having to respond as an American people, and that’s why you hear us calling for masks and increased social distancing to really stop the spread of this epidemic,” she added.

“There are those who doubt that this is real or they think it’s kind of overblown, they say you get more testing done and then you’re going to get more cases or it’s only young people, and they don’t get a sick,” Guthrie said, echoing many claims that have been made by President Donald Trump.

“From your perspective, you have a chance to get a message across here, is this outbreak real, and is it serious?” Guthrie asked.

“Well it’s very serious and it’s very real,” Birx said, and talked about the need to protect vulnerable people of all ages, noting that  “this first wave that we see now across Florida, Texas, California, and Arizona began with under 30-year-olds, many who were asymptomatic and didn’t know they were spreading it. And so they have to assume that they are infected and positive, and we all need to protect those who need our protection right now.”

Watch the clip above via NBC.