Top disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci warns of ‘really serious’ consequences if US reopens too soon
- Key member of Trump’s Covid-19 task force testifies to Senate panel via video conference
- He offers cautious optimism on treatment and vaccine development
Dr Anthony Fauci, the United States’ leading infectious disease expert, warned of “really serious” consequences if the nation pushed to reopen too soon, while offering cautious optimism on treatment and vaccine development.
In testimony to the Senate Health, Labour and Pensions Committee, Fauci reminded senators repeatedly that the virus will never disappear, that new cases are inevitable even with improved testing and treatment, and that it is paramount that states show they can handle future outbreaks with comprehensive tracing systems, robust testing, and sufficient medical capacity.
“There is no doubt, even under the best of circumstances, when you pull back on mitigation you will see some cases appear,” Fauci said.
Without proper preparations, Fauci said he feared that “we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks,” and that “the consequences could be really serious”.
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His comments throughout the hearing reiterated points he made in the email he sent to The New York Times on Monday in which he wrote: “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.”
