Posted on 07/09/2020 9:20:07 AM PDT by RandFan
Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said Thursday that hard-hit states should not be moving forward with reopening, but stopped short of calling for full shutdowns.
"I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process, looking at what did not work well and try to mitigate that," Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, told The Hill's Steve Clemons. "I don't think we need to go back to an extreme of shutting down."
Fauci struck a different note than he did a day earlier in an interview with The Wall Street Journal when he said states should consider shutdowns.
"I think any state that is having a serious problem, that state should seriously look at shutting down," he said Wednesday. "It's not for me to say because each state is different."
On Thursday, though, he softened his remarks, saying, "I would hope we don't have to resort to shutdown."
He added that shutdowns "would not be viewed very favorably."
Speaking at an event hosted by The Hill and sponsored by the Biosimilars Forum, he said hard-hit states should take steps like closing bars, which many have done in recent days, and avoiding large gatherings.
He pointed to California, Arizona, Texas and Florida as accounting for 50 percent of new infections.
"We've got to get them to do very fundamental things," Fauci said. "Closing bars, avoiding congregations of large numbers of people, getting the citizenry in those states to wear masks, maintain six foot distance, [and washing hands]."
"If we can do that consistently, I would tell you almost certainly you're going to see a downturn in those infections," he added.
As new cases have spiked to around 60,000 per day in the United States, Fauci had a somber assessment.
"We've been hit harder than any country in the world," he said.
In contrast, President Trump has continued to downplay the worsening outbreak, tweeting on Thursday that the new cases are simply the result of more testing, despite experts widely saying that is not true. Experts point out that the percentage of tests that come back positive is rising as are hospitalizations in key states, signs that the outbreak cannot be blamed solely on more testing.
Trump also earlier encouraged states to quickly reopen their economies.
Fauci said Thursday that some Southern states now being hit hard reopened too soon, and not in accordance with the benchmarks in the White House guidelines.
"What we've seen, unfortunately, is that in some of the southern states, the states have not really followed those guidelines in some respects and jumped over the benchmarks," Fauci said.
And what is the death toll? Oh still dropping?
False-y
AGREE
He is causing damage every time he opens his mouth
STHU you hilLIAR luvin embedded bureaucratic SNAKE
JUST FOAD
Exactly. Ultimately, Trump is the one that turned his presidency entirely over to Fauci/Birx for 3 months. That decision is on him.
Drop dead already.
Just follow his friends and the money. If the SDNY needs some tax returns and financial records, Fauci’s would be a good start.
40 years in government won't make you a better servant of the people but it sure will corrupt you. An intelligent person with knowledge and/or skills would have moved on and not hid behind the government skirt all these years. He's nothing more than a small man (no pun intended) who has risen to the level of a politicized bureaucrat who can't get anything right looking for a big payday with his globalist friends.
I don’t know if Trump has the authority to fire him, but he should definitely make it clear that Fauci has no real power.
Fauci should be floating face-down in the Potomac, sliding on out to sea. Naturally, I mean that in the nicest possible way.
[Social distancing? more likely, same phenomenon one encounters at any fast food drive-through]
They might as well put (D) after his name.
A very evil man!
It was a bad decision on his part, he gave too much power to the medical community.
Even if you look at deaths per 1 million population, we’re still only 9th. And that’s with many of the poorest nations having had virtually no exposure to it yet. The UK, France, Belgium, and others are all doing worse in deaths per 1 million population. The US is sitting at 407 deaths per million and Belgium is more than double at 844.
So by what measure is the US getting hit harder than anybody?
Just saw this video myself. Sounds like A very wonderful thing, if it is what this doc says it is!
Hmmm. I don’t seem to recall anyone in the US being denied treatment or ventilators like in Italy. Right there says we haven’t been the hardest hit..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.