The leading infectious disease experts also said that it could be ‘well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021’ before returning to pre-coronavirus normalcy.
By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder, Staff Writer Sept. 11, 2020
Leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said that it "well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021" before "getting back to a degree of normality," in a television appearance Friday.THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LEADING INFECTIOUS disease expert Anthony Fauci on Friday disputed President Donald Trump's comments that "we have rounded the final turn" of the coronavirus outbreak.
"I have to disagree with that, because if you look at ... the statistics ... they are disturbing. We're plateauing at around 40,000 cases a day and the deaths are around a thousand," Fauci told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell.
SEE: Dr. Anthony Fauci: Fighting the Coronavirus Pandemic 'Is My Entire World.'
Fauci also said that it could be "well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021" before "getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to Covid."
Levels need to be lower, Fauci said, "so that when you go into a more precarious situation, like the fall and the winter, you won't have a situation where you really are at a disadvantage right from the very beginning."
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"But when you have a baseline of infections that are 40,000 per day, and you have threats of increased test positivity in certain regions of the country – such as the Dakotas and Montana and places like that – what we don't want to see is going into the fall season, when people will be spending more time indoors, and that's not good for a respiratory-borne virus," Fauci said. "You don't want to start off already with a baseline that's so high."
Trump delivered the message on Thursday as he was defending his comments to journalist Bob Woodward about downplaying the coronavirus.
[MAP: The Spread of Coronavirus]
"If Bob Woodward thought that what I said was bad, then he should have immediately, right after I said it, gone out to the authorities so they can prepare and let them know," Trump said.
Trump had told Woodward during an interview in March that he "wanted to always play it down," according to CNN. "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic."
He earlier told Woodward in February that the virus is "deadly stuff" and "more deadly than even your strenuous flu." But he told the public in February that once it gets warmer the virus "miraculously goes away."
Fauci on Friday wouldn't comment specifically on what Trump said to the journalist "except to say yes, when you downplay something that is really a threat, that's not a good thing."
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