Politico | Anthony Fauci says ‘I have to disagree’ with Donald Trump saying US is rounding corner on coronavirus
- Top infectious disease expert concerned over Covid-19 figures as flu season draws closer
- President told reporters at White House that US might be nearing end of its struggle with pandemic
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Caitlin Opyrsko on politico.com on September 11, 2020.
The nation’s top infectious diseases expert sharply split on Friday with President Donald Trump’s assertion that the country is “rounding the final turn” of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I'm sorry but I have to disagree with that,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, calling the United States’ coronavirus levels seven months into the pandemic “disturbing”.
“We are plateauing around 40,000 cases a day and the deaths are around 1,000,” Fauci pointed out, adding that he hopes the country does not see another spike following Labour Day weekend like it did after Memorial Day and Fourth of July as flu season draws closer.
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Countries that haven't reported a single case of Covid-19 are still hit hard by the pandemic
“What we don't want to see is going into the fall season, when people will be spending more time indoors – and that's not good for a respiratory-borne virus – you don't want to start off already with a baseline that's so high,” he said, reiterating a point he has made consistently over the last few months.
His comments came less than a day after Trump told reporters at the White House that the US might be nearing the end of its struggle with the virus, which has killed more than 192,000 and infected more than 6.4 million Americans.