Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Fauci: Key moment in US virus fight
As cases surge, public urged to follow guidelines
WASHINGTON — The next few weeks are critical to tamping down a disturbing coronavirus surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress on Tuesday — issuing a plea for people to avoid crowds and wear masks just hours before mask-shunning President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in one hot spot — Arizona.
Fauci and other top health officials also said they have not been asked to slow down virus testing, in contrast to Trump’s claim last weekend that he had ordered fewer tests be performed because they were uncovering too many infections. Trump said earlier Tuesday that he wasn’t kidding when he made that remark.
“We will be doing more testing,” Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, pledged to a House committee conducting oversight of the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic.
The leading public health officials spent more than five hours testifying before the committee at a fraught moment, with coronavirus cases rising in about half the states and political polarization competing for attention with public health recommendations.
Fauci told lawmakers he understands the pent-up desire to get back to normal after months of stay-athome orders and business shutdowns. But that has “to be a gradual step-by-step process and not throwing caution to the wind,” he said.
“Plan A, don’t go in a crowd. Plan B, if you do, make sure you wear a mask,” Fauci said.
Troubling surges worsened Tuesday in several states, with Arizona, Texas and Nevada setting singleday records for new coronavirus cases, and some governors saying they’ll consider reinstating restrictions or delaying plans to ease up in order to help slow the spread of the virus.
Another worrisome trend: an increase in infections among young adults. Fauci said while COVID-19 tends to be less severe in younger people, some of them do get very sick and even die. And younger people also may be more likely to show no symptoms yet still spread the virus.
“If people say, ‘I’m young, I’m healthy, who cares’ — you should care, not only for yourself but for the impact you might have” on sickening someone more vulnerable, Fauci said.
Fauci’s assessment, delivered during a lengthy hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, painted a much grimmer picture of the coronavirus threat than the one given by Trump, who claimed last week the virus would just “fade away.”
“The virus is not going to disappear,” Fauci said.
To the contrary, he said the next two weeks would be critical to controlling the spread of the virus, and he warned of a dangerous situation looming this winter, when the regular flu season will intersect with the coronavirus, producing “two respiratory-borne infections simultaneously confounding each other.”
About 2.3 million Americans have been infected and some 120,000 have died, according to data from
Johns Hopkins University.
Fauci grew testy when Rep. David McKinley, RW.Va., asked him if he thought the news media had treated Trump unfairly — Fauci declined to answer — and whether he regretted not advising people more forcefully to wear masks earlier in the pandemic.
“OK, we’re going to play that game,” Fauci said, seemingly irked. McKinley said it was a yes-or-no question.
“There is more than a yes or no, by the tone of your question,” Fauci shot back. “I do not regret that. Let me explain to you what happened. At that time, there was a paucity of equipment that our health care providers needed who put themselves daily in harm’s way of taking care of people who are ill.”
Trump, meanwhile, doubled down on testing claims that have public health experts appalled, tweeting Tuesday:
“Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country, and ever expanding. With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!”
Less testing means more infections going undetected. The U.S. was slow in ramping up and currently is testing about 500,000 people a day. Many experts say to control the spread of the virus, it should be testing 900,000 or more.
Fauci, who has run the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, was the only witness who is not a political appointee of the president’s. But the others — Adm. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for public health; Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of food and drugs; and Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — struck a similarly somber tone.
Redfield called the pandemic “the greatest public health crisis our nation and our world have confronted in more than a century,” and one that had “brought this nation to its knees,” cautioning that when it coincides with flu season this year, hospitals and health workers would face a tremendous strain. Getting a flu shot, he said, would be even more important this year.
“This single act will save lives,” Redfield said.