Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, testifies before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to examine COVID-19, “focusing on the lessons learned to prepare for the next pandemic, “on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on June 23, 2020.
Kevin Dietsch | Pool | AFP | fake pictures
White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci urged young Americans not to take the coronavirus lightly, saying that doing so could spread the pandemic.
“You have to be responsible for yourself, but also a social responsibility that you are becoming infected is not just you in a vacuum. You are spreading the pandemic,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Facebook. CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an interview Thursday night.
Fauci’s comment came as state health authorities say younger people ignore social distancing measures and contract the virus at a faster rate. Fauci said the average age of a new Covid-19 patient has dropped by 15 years since the start of the pandemic in the U.S.
Vice President Mike Pence warned last month that about half of new cases in the United States were people under the age of 35, particularly in Florida and Texas.
Fauci said that young people in bars having fun is “totally understandable.” But she cautioned that young people who are asymptomatic, who never develop symptoms, can also pass the virus on to others.
“I get it,” he said Thursday. “I was there at some point in my life. Or I see people in the crowds and you say well, they think they are not doing anything that is particularly harmful, but they could be.”
Fauci had warned last month that doctors and infectious disease specialists were seeing “more and more” complications with Covid-19 in young people.
At the beginning of the outbreak in the US, researchers said the virus appeared to be sparing young people and that it was particularly severe for the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.
That is not the case, Fauci said during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on June 23. “To think that young people do not have harmful consequences is not true. We are seeing more and more complications in young people.”
Fauci said he has never seen a single virus have such a wide range of symptoms.
Some people have no symptoms, while “some have mild symptoms and others have enough symptoms to put them home for a few days. Some are in bed for weeks and have symptoms even after recovery, others go to the hospital, some require oxygen, some they require intensive care, some get tubed and some die, “he said.
Fauci was named director of the NIAID in 1984 and has worked with six American presidents.
In recent days, President Donald Trump and other administration officials have criticized Fauci’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite criticism, Fauci told “The Atlantic” magazine that he had not considered resigning. “I think the problem is too important for me to get into those kinds of thoughts and discussions,” he said, according to an edited transcript of the interview. “I just want to do my job. I’m really good at it. I think I can contribute. And I’m going to keep doing it.”
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