[ad_1]
The most prominent experts in the Donald Trump administration warned on Tuesday that the country runs the risk of unleashing a deadly new wave of coronaviruses if states reopen their doors prematurely, and without the diagnostic capacity required to monitor the progress of the disease.
(Also read: Latest news about the coronavirus in the world)
Their testimonies, including that of the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, were part of the first hearing that the US Senate held on the pandemic and which sought to assess whether the country is ready to relax measures of social distancing and revive the economy.
“My concern is that if cities or states bypass security controls (which have been suggested) and reopen prematurely without having the capacity to respond effectively and efficiently, we will see new outbreaks. There is a real risk of unleashing a regrowth that cannot be controlled“said Fauci, one of the members of the task force that Trump created to deal with the pandemic.
According to the doctor, it is a “paradoxical” scenario, since it would not only lead “to more death and suffering that it is possible to avoid”, but to a setback in economic recovery.
Fauci spoke of the consequences of a hasty opening.
The forecast of Fauci and the other experts is given just at a time when almost all the states of the country have begun to relax the measures of social distancing and move forward with their gradual reopening plans.
(It may interest you: White House, on high alert for cases of covid-19 in officials)
There is a real risk that they will cause an outbreak that they are unable to control, and that will not only lead to avoidable suffering and death
Further, seems to contradict Trump’s position, which has been pressing for several days for the US. USA start the engines of economic activity.
One month ago, the White House published a set of rules that states had to follow before relaxing the measures of confinement and reactivating their productive devices.
Among them a 14 consecutive days decrease in the number of infections and the establishment of a system that allows rapid diagnosis of new outbreaks of the disease.
(Also read: Historic destruction of jobs in the United States: 20.5 million)
To the date, almost no state meets both criteria. Instead they have begun to implement gradual reopens based on the specific situation of cities and counties.
During the hearing, Fauci also warned that the death toll in the US USA as a consequence of the virus is probably higher than the official count.
United States President Donald Trump.
To date, according to that count, Some 82,000 people have died in the country. By far the highest in the world and almost triple that of the United Kingdom, the second country with the highest mortality.
Several Democratic senators took the opportunity to highlight that difference and They held Trump accountable for minimizing the impact of the pandemic early on. The Republicans, for their part, insisted that the coronavirus took everyone by surprise and therefore it was not fair to launch it against the President.
(You may be interested: Why are there two versions of the coronavirus origin in the US?)
Both parties agreed, however, that management should expand the capacity to produce and distribute evidence as soon as possible diagnostic.
According to Republican Lamar Alexander, The path towards the normalization of employment and the return of students to schools and universities goes through the development of a massive and efficient system to carry out tests in every corner of the country. Something that doesn’t exist right now, despite Trump insisting that He has already served on that front and is a world leader.
New York City has been the worst hit by the coronavirus in the US. USA
Although his administration is correct when he points out that USA USA It is the country in the world that has carried out the most tests to date (almost 10 million), This is a misleading calculation, since it does not contemplate the number of inhabitants per country, which is the correct formula to measure this type of effort.
That is, EE. USA, Despite its 10 million tests, it has only carried out some 29,500 per million inhabitants. A lower number than countries like Spain, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Singapore and many more.
Also, it’s about a capacity that has only developed in the last few weeks and that it did not have at the beginning of the pandemic, when they were critical to measure the progression of the disease.
SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
