America’s best-known immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci told the U.S. Senate on Tuesday that if the country re-opens prematurely, it will face “needless suffering and death.”
When asked by New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg to comment on the three-phase White House plan, Fauci expressed his serious concerns.
“The major message that I wish to convey to the Senate … committee tomorrow is the danger of trying to open the country prematurely,” he said. “If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines to: ‘Open America Again,’ then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country. This will not only result in needless suffering and death, but would actually set us back on our quest to return to normal.”
Fauci appeared before Congress, remotely, on Tuesday. He told the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee about what he views as the next steps to contain the Covid-19 spread. The immunologist voiced his opinion on Trump’s plan to restart local businesses.
“In order for ‘Open America Again’ to take place,” Fauci said, “all states should have had a steady “downward trajectory of positive tests” over the previous two weeks, along with widespread access to testing.”
Fauci is concerned that most states will reopen prematurely without meeting these prerequisites. As millions of Americans struggle to make ends meet after losing their jobs, businesses are rushing to open up in attempts to ease the financial burden of the pandemic.
Fauci noted that a precipitous reopening could further delay a return to normalcy, which might already be jeopardized in the fall by a second wave of the virus. Several virologists, including Fauci, fear that Covid-19 might return after the summer, alongside influenza, and require a new round of strict worldwide lockdown.
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