Four members of the White House coronavirus task force were grilled by the Senate Health Committee Tuesday in the body’s first major hearing since the novel coronavirus ravaged the country.
The virus has led to more than 81,000 deaths and more than 1.3 million cases, and has also shut down the economy, triggering fears about Great Depression-level joblessness.
Here are five takeaways from what was a must-watch hearing. Continue reading.
Anthony Fauci in a highly anticipated hearing on Tuesday warned the Senate Health Committee of “really serious” consequences if states ignore federal guidelines and reopen too early during the coronavirus pandemic.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the danger of new spikes of coronavirus cases from reopening is both real and dangerous.
“My concern is that if some areas, city, states or what have you, jump over those various checkpoints and prematurely open up without having the capability of being able to respond effectively and efficiently, my concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks,” Fauci said during virtual testimony from his home in Washington. Continue reading.
When the House Appropriations Committee revealed last week that the White House was blocking Dr. Anthony Facui from testifying before the congressional chamber, many were outraged that the administration was undermining a key avenue of oversight. But the White House pushed back, arguing that the timing wasn’t right given the ongoing crisis.
“While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at Congressional hearings,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere. “We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time.”
But on Tuesday, President Donald Trump dropped the pretense and made the truth quite clear. He doesn’t want Fauci testifying in the House because Democrats control the chamber. Continue reading.
In an exclusive interview, the face of America’s COVID-19 response cautions against the rush for states to reopen, and offers his tips for handling the pandemic’s information deluge.ANTHONY “TONY” FAUCI has become the scientific face of America’s COVID-19 response, and he says the best evidence shows the virus behind the pandemic was not made in a lab in China.
Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, shot down the discussion that has been raging among politicians and pundits, calling it “a circular argument” in a conversation Monday with National Geographic.
“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated … Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,” Fauci says. Based on the scientific evidence, he also doesn’t entertain an alternate theory—that someone found the coronavirus in the wild, brought it to a lab, and then it accidentally escaped. Continue reading.
The Trump administration has blocked Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, from testifying on the coronavirus pandemic.
Why it matters: Fauci has often given Americans a reality check on the administration’s response to the coronavirus and has garnered bipartisan credibility for his straight-forward approach to the crisis.
Flashback: Fauci testified in March that America’s system of making coronavirus tests available is not set up in a way it needs to be.
With the White House’s social distancing guidelines expiring Thursday, leaving states largely in charge of deciding how to move forward, Anthony S. Fauci warned local leaders to avoid “leapfrogging” critical milestones in an effort to reopen their economies amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“Obviously you could get away with that, but you’re making a really significant risk,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday evening on CNN.
Fauci, who has repeatedly cautioned against prematurely easing restrictions, said he already noticed that some states and cities are not adhering to the steps laid out in the White House’s recently issued guidance on reopening — a plan that administration officials say will now replace the expired federal social distancing measures. Continue reading.
Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, said results from a clinical trial of a potential COVID-19 treatment showed “quite good news.”
Data from an international study of remdesivir showed patients treated with the drug recovered 31 percent faster than patients given a placebo, Fauci told reporters at the White House on Wednesday, alongside President Trumpand Vice President Pence.
“Although a 31 percent improvement doesn’t seem like a knockout 100 percent, it is a very important proof of concept,” Fauci said. “What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus.” Continue reading.
The president said the coronavirus wouldn’t come back while Dr. Anthony Fauci said it would be “a bad fall” and the attorney general threatened to sue states for enforcing restrictions.WASHINGTON — A week ago, President Trump chastised Georgia for starting to reopen. “It’s too soon,” he said. But on Tuesday, he cheered Texas as it began resuming business. “Great job,” he said. And Florida may be next as the president welcomed its governor to the Oval Office.
White House guidelines urge states to retain coronavirus restrictions until they meet certain criteria, but Attorney General William P. Barr is now threatening to sue them if he deems those limits too strict. And even as the president talks about opening the country, he has ordered it closed to immigration, even suggesting on Tuesday that flights from Brazil be banned.
With more and more states ready to resume some semblance of normal life, the messages from Mr. Trump and his administration at times have sounded contradictory and confusing. The president is anxious to get the stalled economy running again as the election grows nearer, and he has encouraged protests against restrictions in some states even as parts of his own government counsel caution for fear of rushing into a second wave of the disease. Continue reading.
Anthony Fauci, the top government official on infectious diseases, warned Monday that protests in opposition to governors’ stay-at-home orders meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus will “backfire” and further delay the reopening of the economy.
“Clearly this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics and the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus, but unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going to happen,” Fauci said on “Good Morning America.”
“So what you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re going to set yourself back,” he said. “So as painful as it is to go by the careful guidelines of gradually phasing into a reopening, it’s going to backfire. That’s the problem.” Continue reading.
