The American death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic could reach nearly 300,000 by Dec 1, according to a new forecast by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington's School of Medicine.
The institute has been the source of influential, though not always accurate, models for the American pandemic, and at times has been favored by the White House.The model shows 295,011 deaths by Dec 1, but says 70,000 of those could be prevented if 95% of Americans wore masks whenever they were outside their homes.
The model also assumes some states will reissue stay-at-home orders and close non-essential businesses when the daily death rate in a state reaches 8 per million."We're seeing a rollercoaster in the United