The United States should not expect the coronavirus outbreak to wane over the summer, White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx said Tuesday.

"None of us can be lulled into this false sense of security that the cases may go down this summer," Birx said in a discussion with the German Marshall Fund president during the organization's Brussels Forum webcast.

“Europe needs to be preparing exactly the same way,” Birx said.

“Our supply chains were not made for that kind of dramatic surge and they weren’t anywhere in the world,” Birx said.

states of its efforts to shore up protective gear during the crisis

Developed countries need to work together this summer to stem future shortages of key supplies such as masks by stockpiling and building redundancy so that supplies come from multiple sources, said Birx, who also serves as the U.S

But Birx said the response might have been different if countries had known earlier about a crucial aspect of the virus' behavior

“I think if we have known the level of asymptomatic spread both in Europe and in the United States it would have changed policy," she said