Surgeon general warns US of `saddest week' and `9/11 moment'

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. surgeon general offered some of the starkest warnings yet Sunday as he braced Americans for the worsening fallout from the new coronavirus, warning “this is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives, quite frankly." The public was advised separately by the nation's infectious disease chief to “just buckle down” and that the virus probably won't be wiped out entirely this year.

The number of people infected in the U.S. has exceeded 300,000, with the death toll climbing past 8,400; more than 3,500 of those deaths are in the state of New York.

Much of the country is under orders to stay home, and federal officials said that have seen signs that people are listening to the message about social distancing. But the Trump administration also is also emphasizing that the worst is yet to come for many communities.

“This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localized," Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on “Fox News Sunday.” He added: “It’s going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that."

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the coming week is “going to be shocking to some."

“But that’s what is going to happen before it turns around, so just buckle down," Fauci said on CBS's “Face the Nation.”

Fauci said that the rate of new cases will determine whether the United States is putting the worst...