by Michael Snyder, End Of The American Dream:

As I write this article, headlines all over the globe are announcing the fact that the United States now has more confirmed coronavirus cases than anybody else in the world.  Two weeks ago anyone that would have predicted that the U.S. would be the world leader in confirmed cases by the end of the month would have been relentlessly mocked, but now it has actually happened, and experts are warning that the worst is yet to come.  On Thursday, 17,224 newly confirmed cases were added to the rapidly growing U.S. total.  If you can believe it, only six other countries have had more than 17,000 total confirmed cases over the course of this entire pandemic.  So the explosion of cases that we are witnessing in the U.S. right now is exceedingly alarming.

On March 1st, we learned that the state of New York had their very first confirmed case of the coronavirus.

Now there are tens of thousands of confirmed cases in the state, and things have already gotten so bad that more than one patient is being put on a single ventilator machine…

At least one New York hospital has begun putting two patients on a single ventilator machine, an experimental crisis-mode protocol some doctors worry is too risky but others deemed necessary as the coronavirus outbreak strains medical resources.

The coronavirus causes a respiratory illness called COVID-19 that in severe cases can ravage the lungs. It has killed at least 281 people over a few weeks in New York City, which is struggling with one of the largest caseloads in the world at nearly 22,000 confirmed cases.

What we have watched transpire in New York over the past couple of weeks is absolutely unprecedented, and a top CDC official is warning that what we have seen there could soon start happening all over the country.

Just like in New York, cases in California have been doubling “every three to four days”, and this has officials in the state enormously concerned…

If that rate holds, California hospitals could see a surge in patients in one to two weeks, Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s secretary of Health and Human Services, said during a Facebook news conference.

“We originally thought that it would be doubling every six to seven days; we see cases doubling every three to four days,” Ghaly said. “[We’re] watching that trend very, very closely.”

Sadly, the rate of growth is even faster in New Orleans, and it is expected that their hospitals will be completely overwhelmed by early April…

New Orleans is on track to become the next coronavirus epicenter in the United States, dimming hopes that less densely populated and warmer-climate cities would escape the worst of the pandemic, and that summer months could see it wane.

The plight of New Orleans – with the world’s highest growth rate in coronavirus cases – also raises fears that the city may become a powerful catalyst in spreading the virus across the south of the country. Authorities have warned the number of cases in New Orleans could overwhelm its hospitals by April 4.

But so far less than 2,000 Americans have died during this pandemic.

If our healthcare system can’t handle what is taking place now, what is going to happen if tens of thousands of people start dying…

The coronavirus pandemic could kill more than 81,000 people in the United States in the next four months and may not subside until June, according to a data analysis done by University of Washington School of Medicine.

The number of hospitalized patients is expected to peak nationally by the second week of April, though the peak may come later in some states. Some people could continue to die of the virus as late as July, although deaths should be below epidemic levels of 10 per day by June at the latest, according to the analysis.

Actually, I think that this projection is quite optimistic, but it sure would be nice if it was accurate.

So far, there have been no signs that this global pandemic is abating.  In recent days the numbers have actually accelerated, and many are wondering what will happen if we continue to see exponential growth in the weeks ahead.

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