A sports outlet known for its brash humor and large millennial audience interviewed White House coronavirus task force expert Dr. Anthony Fauci with the hope of communicating key medical information to America’s younger generation.
Instructing Fauci to “speak to us like we’re 8 years old,” the hosts of Pardon My Take, a top-rated podcast produced by Barstool Sports, peppered the expert with questions aimed at their millennial audience for more than an hour on Wednesday.
“We need the young people to help us to protect the vulnerable because when an individual who is young gets infected and has no symptoms or even mild symptoms, that individual will continue the virus spreading in the community,” said Fauci.
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The interview marked an example of how all levels of news media are working to provide information and dispel myths for the millennial generation, which White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx has repeatedly said is the most important age group to help slow the spread of the virus.
Host Dan Katz, known as “Big Cat,” asked Fauci to explain how the virus started and how it spread so quickly around the world.
“How does it get out of China? We live in a world without boundary because of travel,” Fauci said. “Our first case was seeded from someone who was in Wuhan, China, came here, and then we knew we had a travel-related case. But what happens is that since it spread so well from human to human, if you don’t contain it right away — and we did a good job in the beginning, but still — all of a sudden you get human-to-human-to-human, and then you get community spread.”
Fauci stressed that Pardon My Take‘s audience will prove the deciding factor in how rapidly the disease spreads in the United States.
“You are an important part of the active plan to contain this epidemic,” Fauci said. “We really do need you. This isn’t something that can be successful without you.”
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