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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Public health official Anthony Fauci faced a senator on Tuesday about when to reopen US schools. USA, acknowledging that it did not have the last word on pandemic-related decisions, but cautioned against being “arrogant” about the danger to children.
“As much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don’t think it’s the end,” said US Senator Rand Paul during the infectious disease expert’s testimony before a Senate committee. “I don’t think you’re the only person who makes a decision.”
A member of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party, Paul questioned the accuracy of the models that predict the path of the pandemic. He said he believed it would be a mistake not to reopen schools.
“We don’t know everything about this virus,” replied Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “And we had better be very careful, especially when it comes to children.
“I think we had better be careful not to be arrogant in thinking that children are completely immune to the ill effects.”
Fauci referred to a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be related to the new coronavirus, which has killed at least three children in New York and affected dozens of others.
The syndrome shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, such as fever, rashes, swollen glands, and, in severe cases, inflammation of the arteries of the heart.
When the senator suggested that Fauci was not the “end of everything” making the decision, Fauci replied: “I have never made myself the end, or the only voice in this.”
“I am a scientist, a doctor, and a public health officer. I give advice based on the best scientific evidence … I do not give advice on economic matters. I do not give advice on anything other than public health.”
Fauci, an advocate of the emergency measures, including orders to stay home, became the target of criticism from the US far-right and conspiracy theorists online after he made statements about the outbreak that they disagreed with. Trump’s.
The president, who previously made the strength of the economy central to his re-election in November, has encouraged states to reopen businesses that were deemed nonessential amid the pandemic.
A CNN opinion poll on Tuesday showed that 84% of Republicans trust the information they get about Trump’s coronavirus compared to 4% of Democrats, while 61% of Republicans trust the information they get from Fauci vs. 81% of Democrats.
Paul, an ophthalmologist, became the first United States senator in March to announce that he had tested positive for the virus.
(Report of Doina Chiacu; Edition of Scott Malone and Howard Goller)
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