The White House coronavirus task force urged millennials to abide by social distancing guidelines just days after President Trump delivered remarks to an estimated 3,000 young people tightly packed into a megachurch in Phoenix, Arizona.
Publicly reunited for the first time in more than eight weeks for a briefing at the Department for Health and Human Services on Friday, coronavirus task force members, led by Vice President Mike Pence, stressed the need to control cases that are “rising precipitously” in Sun Belt states.
“There are 16 states with rising cases and rising percentages,” Pence said. “Those are the ones we are paying attention to.” Cases have reached their highest levels since April.
“About half of the new cases reported this week are people under the age of 35,” he said. “We still have work to do. … Now is the time for everybody to continue to do their part.”
Visits by the vice president to Texas, Arizona, and Florida for political events next week will also focus on how the administration is handling the outbreak. All three states have seen a surge in cases. New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have asked travelers from Arizona to abide by a new 14-day quarantine.
Coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, who will travel with the vice president to Texas and Arizona next week, thanked young people for getting tested. “Thanks to the millennials who have been … coming forward,” she said.
Few among the more than 3,000 attendees at a Students for Trump event in Phoenix on Tuesday wore masks, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and members of the White House task force have advised.
Trump has said he does not want to wear a mask, and in an interview with Fox News on Thursday said some people may wear them to “signal disapproval” of him.
Top government infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested that “opening a little too early,” “not actually following the steps in an orderly fashion,” and people feeling “pent up” may have contributed to the surge in cases.
“When I was at a phase in my life, I said, ‘I’m invulnerable, so I’m going to take a risk,'” Fauci said. “I think what we’re missing … is that a risk for you is not isolated to you. If you get infected, you are part, innocently or inadvertently, of propagating the dynamic process of a pandemic.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Friday with new restrictions on bars, restaurants, and some outdoor recreation and has pleaded with Texans to wear masks.
Despite the rise in cases in the South, Pence said the nation is in a “very, very different place than we were three months ago,” stressing the “extraordinary progress” of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Louisiana.
More than 126,000 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
