Fauci pins blame for US summer surge on half-hearted lockdown

THE United States saw a summer surge in coronavirus cases while Europe saw a decline because America adhered far less to early lockdowns, the top US infectious diseases expert has said.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that 95 per cent of parts of European countries obliged when the shutdowns first came into effect, but only 50 per cent did in the US.

He said that meant that when countries began to relax rules and open up economies as spring turned to summer, virus cases soared in America because infection rates had not dropped to as low a level as seen in Europe.

The explanation was offered as Dr Fauci, regarded as the face of scientific advice on the pandemic given his senior government position and frequent television appearances, was giving evidence to a congressional committee.

It is an attempt to unpick why in the

US the number of new coronavirus cases being registered each day jumped from around 20,000 in June to around 70,000 in July, while the numbers dropped off in Europe.

Dr Fauci said: “If you look at what happened in Europe when they shut down or locked down or went to shelter in places, however you want to describe it, they really did it to the tune of about 95-plus per cent. When you look at what we did, even though we shut down, we really functionally shut down only about 50 per cent in the sense of the totality of the country.”

During the hearing, Dr Fauci also talked up hopes of a vaccine being produced for Covid-19 by the end of the year. He rejected a comparison to the failure to develop an HIV vaccine, noting that the body’s struggle to produce antibodies in this condition was not the case with Covid-19.

He said that after animal tests and early testing on humans he was “cautiously optimistic we will have a vaccine by the end of this year”.

He added that around 250,00 people had registered interest in participating in vaccine trials, but urged more to do so to ensure diversity among those involved.

Dr Fauci’s testimony comes at the end of a month in which US coronavirus deaths rose by almost 25,000, and cases doubled in at least 18 states, dealing a crushing blow to hopes of quickly reopening the economy.

The US has recorded nearly 1.8million new Covid-19 cases in July out of its total of 4.5 million known infections, an increase of 66 per cent. Deaths in July rose at least 19 per cent to more than 152,000.

‘Even though we shut down, we really functionally shut down only about 50 per cent of the totality of the US’