HEALTH PROS ZOOM IN
Fauci others warn of too-fast reopenings in video testimony to Senate
Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top health officials appeared via video links before Congress on Tuesday for a three-hour hearing into the government’s coronavirus response, warning that the US will likely face a second outbreak if states reopen too quickly but also offering a glimmer of hope on a potential vaccine.
Fauci, a infectious-disease expert and member of the White House coronavirus task force, preached caution as President Trump urges the country to return to work after a monthslong lockdown, with Fauci grimly warning: “If you think we have it completely under control, we don’t.”
In a hearing reflective of how much life has changed in the two months since the virus arrived in the US, masked lawmakers grilled the four public-health experts who appeared remotely as did many committee members — three of the experts in self-isolation after coming into contact with Vice President Mike Pence’s COVID-19-infected press secretary.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, Trump coronavirus-testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir and Fauci were questioned over testing and contact-tracing issues, with more than 80,000 Americans now dead amid the health crisis.
The experts opened the Senate Health Committee hearing bearing some good news, with Giroir estimating the country would be able to aggressively ramp up testing to a rate of 50 million per month by September — a massive jump from the 9 million tests that have been performed so far.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, optimistically predicted that a working vaccine may be ready as early as late fall, with at least eight candidate COVID-19 vaccines in clinical development.
“In January of this year I said that it would take about one year to 18 months, if we were successful in developing a vaccine,” the New York-born scientist said.
“If we are successful, we hope to know that in the late fall and early winter . . . We have many candidates and hope to have multiple winners. In other words, it’s multiple shots on goal,” he continued.
But the hearing became tense as many lawmakers said the US death toll was unacceptably high and added they had been given little guidance on how to safely reopen their states.
While the country is making some progress on testing and tracing, the health experts painted a dire picture if the country reopens before it is ready, with Redfield saying “we’re not out of the woods yet.”
“Rapid, extensive and widely available timely testing is essential to reopening America,” he said.
The CDC director said it was necessary for the public to stay the course on social distancing and wearing face masks as the feds help states reopen.
As most states start partially reopening this weekend, Fauci said he was concerned they were moving too quickly and not following guidelines that ask states to show a 14-day downward trend in new cases before allowing businesses to begin operating at a reduced capacity.
The hearing inevitably became political as Democrats took the opportunity to bash the Trump administration while GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky accused Fauci of thinking he was “the end-all.”
“I think we all have a little bit of humility in our belief that we know what’s best for the economy, and as much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don’t think you’re the end-all,” Rand said, raising fears schools would remain closed to underprivileged kids for the rest of the year.
In response, Fauci suggested that Paul — who himself has recovered after contracting COVID-19 — was being “cavalier” in thinking children were immune after it emerged this week that several had died from a COVID-related disease.