“Nobody was saying a month ago, ‘Hey, if this runs through the United States without anybody taking mitigation measures, it’s going to kill 2 million people,” he said. Sexton warned against using New York City as the baseline for the rest of the country.

New York City is considered to be the U.S.’s epicenter for the virus. Johns Hopkins University reported that 1,139 people died there from the disease. The number can be higher since there are 565 deaths counted as unassigned.

Sexton pointed out that the city is the most crowded metropolitan area in the country and can’t be compared to placed like Washington, D.C.

“This is a period of time where we have to do as much of our own thinking and be willing to question authority as much as we ever have,” he said.

One of the most lingering issues with the new coronavirus are ways it can be transmitted. Some of those affected could be asymptomatic and spread the virus. The CDC has insisted that face masks should be reserved for health professionals and those with the disease, and yet Austria has enforced mandatory mask-wearing inside supermarkets.

Sexton blamed China as being “directly responsible” for “a lot of the carnage” across the world. It has been widely reported that the virus started in a wet market in Wuhan. China has been criticized by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of spreading disinformation.

“And now we're all paying that. We're all paying the price for that. We're all paying the price for it,” Sexton said.