Dr. Anthony Fauci said the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has not been adequate when compared with other countries.
In an interview with FiveThirtyEight released Thursday, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a core member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said he doesn’t believe the United States is properly handling the health crisis, diverging once again from the opinion of President Trump.
“How do you think the U.S. is doing right now? If you’re looking across the world, what are your feelings about how we’re doing right now?” asked reporter Anna Rothschild.
“Well, let me say, there are parts of the United States, like where you live right now [in New York], that are doing really well, that you’ve been through something really bad, and you have things under control. And you have a governor and mayor in the city who understand what it means to go by the guidelines for the gateway, phase one, phase two, phase three. So you’re doing well. Other cities are doing well,” Fauci began, praising New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his response despite him being widely criticized for policies that have increased coronavirus cases in nursing homes.
“But as a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don’t think you can say we’re doing great. I mean, we’re just not,” he concluded.
Earlier this week, Fauci warned that the U.S. should not fall into a “false complacency” about coronavirus death rates declining. Speaking at a press conference with Sen. Doug Jones, an Alabama Democrat, he warned citizens against feeling relaxed about the coronavirus even though death rates have fallen.
“It’s a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death,” he said. “There’s so many other things that are very dangerous and bad about this virus. Don’t get yourself into a false complacency.”
Fauci said that the rise in coronavirus cases in states such as Florida and Texas was largely due to younger people, who are less likely to get seriously ill or die, testing positive for the coronavirus. He noted that younger people engaging in “risky behavior” are contributing to worsening the pandemic even if they don’t exhibit symptoms themselves.
“By allowing yourself to get infected because of risky behavior, you are part of the propagation of the outbreak. So you are part of the problem. Because you could, even though you feel fine, you could inadvertently and innocently infect someone else, who then inadvertently and innocently infects someone who is really vulnerable,” he said.
There are more than 12.1 million reported cases of the coronavirus across the globe, with more than 551,900 deaths. In the U.S., more than 3.1 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus, with the nation’s death toll totaling more than 133,000. More than 38 million people in the U.S. have been tested for COVID-19, according to the latest reading of the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
