Surgeon General Jerome Adams acknowledged Wednesday that the Trump administration’s recommendation that Americans practice preventative measures for 15 days is “likely not going to be enough” time to successfully halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

“Fifteen days is likely not going to be enough to get us all the way through. But we really need to lean into it now so that we can bend the curve in the next 15 days, and at that point we’ll reassess,” Adams said during an interview on NBC’s “Today.”


The concession from the surgeon general comes after the administration announced a slate of new guidelines Monday intended to blunt the disease’s rapid rate of transmission in the U.S., where positive cases have now been reported in all 50 states and more than 100 people have died as a result of the virus.