Leona: If the average consumption of eggs in the United States were cut in half, an estimated 5, 000 lives might be saved each year. Thomas: How can that be? That would mean that if people adopt this single change in diet for ten years, the population ten years from now will be greater by 50, 000 people than it otherwise would have been.
If egg consumption were reduced by more than half, the estimated number of lives saved each year could be even more than 5, 000 is a statement that Leona could offer Thomas to clarify her own claim and to address the point he has made.