Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Tuesday that a second wave of coronavirus infections in winter could be even more devastating to the healthcare system as it is expected to hit at the same time as flu season, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. “There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” Redfield told the Post. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.” He reportedly stressed that public officials must continue to use social distancing guidelines in the coming months to control the impact of a potential second wave of deadly infections, as well as robust contract tracing.

Redfield said that large-scale protests across the country against shelter-in-place orders and President Trump’s tweets for citizens in Minnesota, Michigan, and Virginia to “liberate” their states were “not helpful,” the Post reported.