One of the researchers behind a widely-cited model predicting the impact of the novel coronavirus in the United States indicated Wednesday that governors should enforce a stay-at-home mandate to help mitigate the harm of the deadly disease.
“There is a difference between putting an order for people to … stay at home, and adherence to that order,” said Dr. Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist and professor at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), in an interview with Jim Braude on WGBH News’ Greater Boston.
When asked if a mandate from elected leaders would be more effective than an advisory, he said it would be.
“If we are strict in terms of telling people to stay at home and people are listening to us, yes, it would save lives,” he said.
In a press briefing on Sunday, Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House COVID-19 Task Force name-checked the IHME model as one that closely mirrored the new somber predictions from the Trump administration.
Updated predictions from the IHME model on Wednesday anticipated that nearly 94,000 Americans will die from COVID-19 by August 4 — an increase of 10,000 total deaths from predictions made just the day before.
