Fauci: No direction given to slow down testing
Health experts testify in front of Congress
WASHINGTON – Dr. Anthony Fauci told House lawmakers on Tuesday that despite President Donald Trump’s claim that he had asked officials to “slow the testing down,” he had never been given such a directive.
“To my knowledge, none of us have ever been told to slow down on testing. That just is a fact,” he said. “In fact, we will be doing more testing.”
Fauci, the top infectious-disease expert at the National Institutes of Health appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He was joined by Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention; Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; and Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health for Health and Human Services.
Redfield, Hahn and Giroir each said they also had never heard any request from the White House to slow down testing.
In his opening remarks, Fauci said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the progress that has been made toward developing a vaccine for COVID-19, which he said will likely be the “nail in the coffin” needed to end the coronavirus pandemic.
Fauci said there were a number of promising vaccines in development and that it’s about “when and not if” they get positive results. He reiterated his hope that a vaccine could be made available by the end of 2020 or early 2021.
The hearing comes as states ramp up reopening efforts and a growing number see spikes in the number of cases. The coronavirus has infected 2.3 million Americans and killed more than 120,000.
It also comes amid continued scrutiny over Trump’s handling of the virus and nationwide protests over racism and police brutality, which sent hundreds of thousands marching into streets amid the pandemic.
Trump received a new batch of criticism after holding a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last week – something that concerned some health experts – and for telling the crowd he asked for a slow down on testing.
“Here’s the bad part: When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases,” Trump said. “So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.’ ”
Fauci was last on Capitol Hill in May, when he testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and warned senators that reopening efforts by states needed to be done cautiously because it presents a “real risk that you will trigger an outbreak.”
At the time, the White House made Fauci available to testify before the Republican-controlled Senate but did not for the Democratic-controlled House. After Fauci was barred from appearing before House lawmakers, Trump called the House a “bunch of Trump haters.”