Fauci doesn’t see COVID summer lull

The coronavirus isn’t taking a summer break judging from its persistent spread in the U.S. Sun Belt, according to the nation’s top infectious-disease doctor.

COVID-19 cases continue to mount in warmer states including Florida, Texas and Arizona, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview. “It doesn’t look like there’s any significant impact right now from the weather,” he said.

Early in the outbreak, Fauci noted that hot weather tends to slow lung infections, and President Donald Trump predicted the pandemic would go away as temperatures rose. Any hopes that the U.S. contagion is abating now appear slim: a widely-watched indicator called R0 suggests that transmission is speeding up, even as the death rate from the infection starts receding.

As many as 31 states have R0 figures above 1, according to the Rt.live website, meaning that each person with the virus infects at least one other. Morgan Stanley estimates R0 for the entire U.S. stands at 1.1 _ a rate at which the epidemic would double every 52 days.

“This is a critical week for states where the COVID epidemic is expanding,” former Food and Drug Administration

commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Twitter. “There’s opportunity to get it under control, but we must lean heavily on masking and testing and tracing.”

Governments around the world are seeking vaccines, treatments and other ways to smother the pandemic as it continues to stifle economies. Fauci is scheduled to testify in front of lawmakers Tuesday along with other leading health officials on the country’s response to the outbreak.