The leading US infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, will testify before the Senate about the government’s efforts for coronavirus on Tuesday, as cases continue to skyrocket and states across the country reverse their reopening efforts.
It will do so as the White House insists that the outbreak has been reduced to “embers,” but after the chief deputy director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Anne Schuchat, insisted: ” This is really the beginning. “
“What we hope is that we can take it seriously and delay transmission,” Schuchat told the Journal of the American Medical Association, adding: “We have too many viruses across the country for that at the moment, so it’s very discouraging.” .
Schuchat added that there were “many illusions across the country” that the pandemic would end by summer.
“We are not even beginning to get through this,” Schuchat said. “There are a lot of worrying factors over the last week or so.
“We are not in the situation in New Zealand, Singapore or Korea, where a new case is quickly identified and all contacts are located and people who are sick are isolated and people who are exposed are in quarantine and can keep things going. under control . “
On Capitol Hill, Fauci and other top advisers must offer an update to the health committee on progress in allowing Americans to return to work and school. Congress is reportedly considering sending a second round of stimulus checks to Americans, with the United States firmly in a recession and historically high unemployment claims.
The United States represents 4% of the world population, but represents approximately 25% of all Covid-19 cases and deaths.
The United States has recorded more than 2.5 million confirmed cases, with some states posting record increases. On Monday, the Arizona governor ordered bars, cinemas, gyms and water parks to be closed for a month, weeks after the reopening.
Texas, Florida and California, all seeing increases in Covid-19 cases, have reversed reopening efforts. Oregon and Kansas have ordered people to wear masks in public.
New daily cases are on the rise in 38 states, according to the NPR pandemic tracker, but the White House continues its attempts to minimize the severity of Covid-19. In a briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany ignored the increase.
“People who are being infected tend to be those, as Vice President Pence has pointed out, half of those who test positive are under the age of 35. This means that we are trapping people in their communities,” he said.
She added: “We are aware that there are embers that must be extinguished.”
Fauci said Sunday that the United States is unlikely to achieve collective immunity against the coronavirus even with a vaccine, given that a third of Americans say they will not receive it.
“There is a general anti-science, anti-authority and anti-vaccine sentiment among some people in this country: an alarmingly large percentage of people, in relative terms,” Fauci said, adding that the government has “a lot of work to do.” To educate people about vaccines.
Even states where the rate of new infections has declined are rethinking plans to allow businesses to reopen. New Jersey has postponed plans to allow meals indoors, while New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he may reverse plans to allow restaurants and bars to reopen.
Broadway theaters will remain closed until January 2021, an industry group said Monday. Theaters had planned to reopen in September.
People in the US are expected to be unable to travel non-essential to the European Union when it publishes a “safe list” of countries on Tuesday. Russia and Brazil, each with increasing cases of coronavirus, are among the other countries to be excluded from the list.
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