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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top public health expert, warned in Senate testimony Tuesday that the official US death toll from coronavirus. USA It is an insufficient count, and that “the consequences could be really serious” if the United States relaxes the safeguards against Covid-19 too abruptly.
“I am concerned that we will start to see small spikes that will become outbreaks,” Fauci said.
Fauci appeared before the Senate as Donald Trump declared that the United States had “prevailed” in the fight to defend its testing program, and encouraged companies and schools to reopen.
Fauci warned against reopening the country before local benchmarks were established, including robust evidence and contact tracing. In most areas of the US In the USA, screening for asymptomatic individuals is rare and contact tracing is extremely limited.
He said: “There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control. Not only does it lead to a little bit of suffering and death, but it could even delay you on the road to economic recovery. ”
Fauci, 79, has headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and has become a trusted public figure.
In response to a question from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Fauci said the official death toll of about 80,000 in the United States was likely low.
“Most of us feel that the number of deaths is probably greater than that number,” he said.
In particular, in New York City, he said, “There may have been people who died at home, who had Covid, who were not counted as Covid because they never got to the hospital.”
As part of Trump urging American schools and businesses to reopen their doors, the White House has set a goal of having 100m doses of vaccines by fall. Fauci rejected that goal, saying that neither a vaccine nor drug treatment would be available in time to facilitate the reopening of schools in the fall.
Fauci said: “In this case, the idea of having available treatments, or a vaccine, to facilitate re-entry would be something that would be a bridge too far. Even at the maximum speed that we are advancing, we don’t see a vaccine playing a role in people’s ability to go back to school this term. “
He warned against opening schools on the assumption that children are safe from the disease, noting recent documentation of a rare inflammatory syndrome in some cases of children.
Fauci said: “I think we had better be very careful, if we are not gentlemen, to think that children are completely immune to the harmful effects.”
The hearing was an unprecedented experiment by the Senate, which conducted business via video conference. It was not always easy: Senator Rand Paul was momentarily the victim of loud comments and several senators had to repeat questions for witnesses.
The chairman of the health committee, Lamar Alexander, led the meeting from his home in Tennessee, with a background of exposed wooden beams and a large stone hearth, having isolated himself upon the news that a staff member tested positive. Sanders spoke from a home office with a Red Hot Chili Peppers poster in the background.
The senators in the room, nearly half with facial covers, were 6 feet apart from each other and from the aides. Large bottles of hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes were at hand.
On Monday afternoon, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany confirmed that Pence “will keep his distance” from Trump “for a few days.”
“I would like to point out that that is his personal decision,” McEnany said, adding that how long Pence will continue to keep his distance will be up to him.
At the Senate hearing, Dr. Stephen Hahn of the Food and Drug Administration and Dr. Robert Redfield of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also testified remotely.
