Ignoring rules could fuel resurgence, he warns
WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci warned a Senate committee Tuesday that if states or communities bypass federal guidelines as they reopen, there’s “a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control” and it “could even set you back on the road to economic recovery.”
Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also said it was “more likely than not”
that a vaccine could be available to the public within a year or two.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee heard from four doctors who serve on President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, but not in the usual way. Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-tenn., kicked off the hearing from home, where he’s in self-quarantine after an aide tested positive for the virus.
Alexander asked his colleagues to consider refraining from “finger pointing,” because almost all of us “underestimated this virus, underestimated how contagious it would be, underestimated how it can travel silently in people without symptoms to infect other people.”
Virtual hearing
Other senators — including Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-nev., and all four witnesses — participated remotely. In the Dirksen Building, those senators who chose to attend in person sat socially distanced from each other, mostly unmasked and with containers of hand sanitizer at the ready.
Fauci, too, testified remotely. He, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn are self-isolating for two weeks after an aide to Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for COVID-19.
Assistant Secretary of Health Adm. Brett Giroir, who is not self-isolating, also testified on camera.
The 3½-hour hearing gave Democrats an opportunity to press the task force for what they see as failures from the Trump administration, such as a lack of universal testing for essential and nonessential workers.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-conn., told the four doctors: “You work for a president who is frankly undermining our efforts to comply with the guidance that you’ve given us. And then the guidance that you’ve provided is criminally vague.”
Murphy charged that the administration “shelved” guidance meant for states as they reopen, in reference to a story reported by The Associated Press.
Redfield responded that the task force was about to give “final review” of the rest of the guidelines and predicted the rest of the guidance would be up on the CDC website “soon.”
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-wis., asked Redfield if he considered White House testing protocols to be a model for essential workplaces. It was a pointed reference to the fact that West Wing staff are tested daily, while essential workers outside the Trump orbit do not enjoy that safeguard.
Waiting for a vaccine
Senators of both parties prodded Fauci to reveal when a vaccine might be available. Fauci praised the government’s speed in starting initial clinical trials 62 days after they officially launched a vaccine program.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont pressed task force doctors to pledge that Americans could get the vaccine at no cost. “Do you think poor people should get in the back of the line?” Sanders asked Giroir. He and Hahn responded that, whatever their personal inclinations, they lack the authority to set policy.
Fauci’s responses may have disappointed Trump critics who had reason to expect heated criticism of
Trump after Fauci released a statement to preview his testimony.
“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 said in a statement released to The New York Times.
Fauci later clarified in response to a question, saying if regions open up prematurely the result could be “little spikes that might turn into outbreaks.”
At the close of the hearing, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-GA., asked the doctors if they had a confrontational relationship with Trump. Fauci said, “No.” Hahn said, “No,” and added, “I have given him my honest answers rooted in data and science and he has listened respectfully to those, incorporating them into his decisionmaking.”
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal. com or 202-662-7391. Follow @Debrajsaunders on Twitter.