Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pushed back on the assertion that the United States has the coronavirus outbreak under control.
“I will not say we have it under control, Margaret. That would be a false statement. We are struggling to get it under control, and that’s the issue that’s at hand right now,” Fauci told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday.
Fauci’s comments are at odds with what President Trump has said about the virus. On March 15, the president claimed the virus was under “tremendous control.” He took a more somber tone last week, warning “there will be a lot of death” in the upcoming days.
“This will be probably the toughest week, between this week and the next week,” Trump said.
On Sunday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams echoed that sentiment.
“This is going to be hardest and the saddest week of most American’s lives, quite frankly. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment; only it’s not going to be localized. It’s going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that,” Adams told Fox News Sunday.
The U.S. has more than 312,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of Sunday morning, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker. More than 8,500 people have died from the virus, and at least 15,000 people have recovered.
