100,000 A DAY WILL LIKELY BE INFECTED
Fauci slaps Don, American Airlines and petty politics
WASHINGTON — The nation’s top infectious disease expert warned the country is headed for a “very disturbing” death toll and could soon see 100,000 infections a day if people and leaders keep failing to follow scientific guidance.
“We are now having 40plus thousand new cases a day,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told the Senate Health Committee Tuesday. “I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day, if this does not turn around. So I am very concerned.”
Earlier death toll estimates from health officials landed in the 100,000 to 200,000 range, but as of Tuesday, the grim tally was passing 126,000. And cases were skyrocketing in California, Arizona, Florida and Texas, and rising in many other states.
Pressed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for a new estimate, Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, would only allow that it will be bad.
“I can’t make an accurate prediction, but it is going to be very disturbing,” Fauci said.
While some Democrats pointed to President Trump mocking the wearing of masks and proper social distancing, Fauci and three other top health officials all said those are exactly what it will take to ensure the nation does not see an even more catastrophic loss of life.
“I think we need to emphasize the responsibility that we have both as individuals and as part of a societal effort to end the epidemic, that we all have to play a part in that,” Fauci said. “If we
are going to contain this, we’ve got to contain it together.”
“Bars — really not good. Really not good. We’ve really gotta stop that, right now, when you have areas that are surging,” said Fauci.
Infections are rising rapidly mostly in parts of the West and South, and Fauci and other public health experts said Americans everywhere will have to start following key recommendations if they want to get back to more normal activities like going to school.
Connect the dots, Fauci told senators: When and how school buildings can reopen will vary depending on how widely the coronavirus is spreading locally.
The former Brooklynite also criticized American Airlines’ decision to pack flights full while the coronavirus outbreak continues to grow across much of the United States.
“Obviously, that is something that is of concern. I’m not sure what went into that decision making,” Fauci told a Senate panel. “I think in the confines of an airplane that becomes even more problematic.”
Several U.S. airlines say they are limiting capacity on planes to between 60% and 67% of all seats. However, United Airlines never promised to leave seats empty, and American said last week that starting Wednesday it would drop its effort to keep half of all middle seats empty.
According to the CDC, a vaccine is, at the very least, many months away. For now, the committee’s leading Republican stressed wearing a mask — and said Trump, who notoriously shuns them, needs to start because politics is getting in the way of protecting the American people.
“The stakes are too high for the political debate about pro-Trump, anti-Trump masks to continue,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who chaired Tuesday’s hearing.
Alexander said he had to self-quarantine after a staff member tested positive for the virus but that he personally was protected because his staffer was wearing a mask.
“The president has plenty of admirers. They would follow his lead,” Alexander said. “The stakes are too high” to continue that fight.