Fauci has stern coronavirus warning.

WASHINGTON >> Two of the federal government’s top health officials painted a grim picture of the months ahead on Tuesday, warning a Senate panel that the United States has not contained the coronavirus pandemic a day after President Donald Trump declared that “we have met the moment and we have prevailed.”

The officials warned of dire consequences if the nation reopens its economy too soon, noting that the United States still lacks critical testing capacity and the ability to trace the contacts of those infected.

“If we do not respond in an adequate way when the fall comes, given that it is without a doubt that there will be infections that will be in the community, then we run the risk of having a resurgence,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, an infectious disease expert and the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

He added that “there is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control” if the economy opens too quickly, “leading to some suffering and death that could be avoided.”

Fauci’s remark, during a highprofile — and partly virtual — hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, along with comments from Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made clear that the nation has not yet prevailed.

The two men, who have at times appeared at Trump’s side, drew a very different picture of the state of the pandemic than the president’s, who has cheered for a swift reopening, championed protesters demanding an end to the quarantine and predicted the beginning of a “transition to greatness.”

Fauci told senators that a vaccine would not be ready in time for the new school year, that outbreaks in other parts of the world would surely reach the United States and that humility in the face of an unpredictable killer meant erring on the side of caution, even with children who have fared well but have recently shown new vulnerabilities.

“We are not out of the woods yet,” Redfield said, “but we are more prepared.”

The two were among four government doctors — the others were Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of food and drugs, and Adm. Brett P. Giroir, an assistant secretary for health — who testified remotely during the hearing. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who like Fauci, Redfield and Hahn is in quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus, presided from his home in Maryville, Tennessee.

Their downbeat assessments came as the death toll in the United States surpassed 81,000 — a figure that Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., noted was “45 times the rate of South Korea.” The hearing — titled, “COVID-19: Safely Getting Back to Work and Back to School” — offered little concrete advice on how that was going to happen. It was the first chance lawmakers have had to publicly question the officials in Congress since Trump declared a national emergency two months ago.

Despite the gloomy predictions for the months ahead, over the long term, the experts drew a somewhat more upbeat picture. Asked by Sen. Mitt Romney, RUtah, if the scientists would ultimately develop a vaccine, Fauci said: “It’s definitely not a long shot, Senator Romney. I would think that it’s more likely than not that we will.”

And Giroir assured Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that his office was determined to see to it that a vaccine “reaches all segments of society regardless of their ability to pay.”