Coronavirus could kill more Americans than WWI, Vietnam or Korean wars, White House projection shows

President Donald Trump has compared the coronavirus pandemic to fighting a war — and that outbreak could end up killing more Americans this year than some wars waged by the United States, including the Vietnam and Korean conflicts, and World War I.

And projections issued Tuesday by the White House suggest that the coronavirus has a chance of becoming the third leading cause of current U.S. deaths, after heart disease and cancer, this year.

White House officials estimate that the COVID-19 outbreak will kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans this year, even with social distancing, business closures and other mitigation efforts.

“This could be a hell of a bad two weeks,” Trump said at a White House briefing Tuesday as officials said a surge of coronavirus cases is coming over that time frame.

The president said that the deaths seen already from what he called “this invisible enemy” have been “incredible.”

As of Wednesday, the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. had topped 200,000, with at least 4,400 deaths.