Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said that the United States could avoid a second economic shutdown as long as people take social distancing seriously.
“There seems to be a misperception that either you shut down completely and damage a lot of things, mental health, the economy, all kinds of things, or let it rip and do whatever you want,” Fauci said on the Politico podcast Pulse Check published Thursday.
Fauci called the coronavirus pandemic an “explosive challenge” that necessitates a widespread “concerted effort” to be vigilant and follow basic social distancing precautions, such as mask-wearing and avoiding close contact with others.
“We know that if you implement [social distancing], they will prevent the surging,” Fauci said. “It would not require shutting down again. This seems to be a misperception that you need to shut down completely … There’s a stepwise fashion that you can open up the economy successfully.”
“You don’t have to lock down again, but everybody has got to be on board for doing these five or six fundamental public health measures,” he added.
Fauci said, as he has before, that he is “cautiously optimistic” that a vaccine will become available by the end of the year or by the beginning of 2021. President Trump has insisted that the vaccine could be ready as soon as winter 2020. Trump has also come under intense scrutiny for downplaying the severity of the pandemic. He said Wednesday that the virus would go away, “frankly, sooner rather than later.”
The total number of infections confirmed in the U.S. ticked up to more than 4.8 million, and over 158,000 people have died.
