(25 Feb 2020) Health officials in the United States delivered mixed messages Tuesday regarding the likelihood of a serious coronavirus outbreak within the U.S..
Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, insisted in an afternoon news conference that "the immediate risk to the general American public remains low."  But he warned that that assessment "has the potential to change quickly" as the virus continues to spread globally.
Moments after Azar stepped away from the podium, the principle deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters that "current global circumstances suggest...this virus will cause a pandemic."  
"Now, it's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen," Anne Schuchat said, "and how many people in this country will become infected and how many of those will develop severe or more more complicated disease."
The CDC's call for Americans to be prepared added new urgency to response efforts that, until this week, focused on a disease largely confined to China, where it apparently originated, and neighboring countries.
As of Tuesday, the spread of the illness had sickened some 80,000 people worldwide and caused about 2,700 deaths.
The vast majority of those infections remain in China, which has reported 77,658 cases and 2,663 deaths.
Azar continues to suggest there's no evidence the virus has spread to the U.S. beyond a relatively small number of people who mostly traveled overseas.
But he said the administration is "trying to engage in radical transparency with the American public" so that it will be prepared if and when additional cases of the virus arrive.
"We don't want people surprised if they see more cases here in the United States," Azar said.  But he underscored that "it's important for people to know we aren't helpless, we have tools" to stop the spread of the disease.

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