Anthony Fauci clashes with Joe Biden's Covid-19 chief over another lockdown, Internet says 'tough winter' ahead
Top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci has disagreed with the chief of President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus advisory board over calls for a nation-wide lockdown as the average rate of daily infections hit a record high. According to Fauci, there is no need for such a lockdown.
Speaking on Good Morning America on Thursday, November 12, Fauci pushed back on another lockdown even as cases per day soared to more than 152,000. He gave his comments after Biden's newly hired health chief, Dr Michael Osterholm said Wednesday, November 11, that another lockdown was the only way to keep hospitalizations and deaths down. Fauci claimed that there was no need for a lockdown if the citizens followed the precautionary measures like wearing masks, washing their hands and social distancing.
"We would like to stay away from that because there's no appetite for locking down the American public," Fauci said. "You don't necessarily have to shut everything down. The best opposite strategy to locking down is to intensify the public health measures. If you can do that well, you don't have to take that step [lockdown] ... which has so many implications both psychologically and economically."
After news of a vaccine emerged on Monday, November 9, the disease expert further stressed the fact that "help is really on the way" adding, "the cavalry is coming." "Vaccines are going to have a major positive impact," he concluded, saying that one could access this cure by April 2021. He later told a British panel in a virtual interview that the vaccine wouldn't completely "eliminate" the virus. "I think we need to plan that this is something we may need to maintain control over chronically," he said. "It may be something that becomes endemic that we have to just be careful about."
However, not many people were convinced by Fauci's reassurance. "That’s a pretty big “if” — we are talking about the US here," one Twitter user said, while another commented, "It’s gonna be a tough winter for everyone." A third noted, "Not everyone wears masks. Everyday I see maskless faces at the store. 143k new cases yesterday. @GOP is too busy on saving @realDonaldTrump instead of the American people."
Someone else wrote, "That’s a big if, people aren’t complying, unless they’re at the grocery store, we need to get the word out that mask are for all public places were people meet, even outdoors. They aren’t called grocery store mask." The next added, "Agree! Make it mask mandatory first and if that does not work then do it!"
That’s a pretty big “if” — we are talking about the US here.
— Steph (@StephReads) November 12, 2020
Not everyone wears masks. Everyday I see maskless faces at the store. 143k new cases yesterday. @GOP is too busy on saving @realDonaldTrump instead of the American people.
— Molonga (@what_mologna) November 12, 2020
That’s a big if, people aren’t complying, unless they’re at the grocery store, we need to get the word out that mask are for all public places were people meet, even outdoors. They aren’t called grocery store mask.
— Catherine Harkey Kamala! (@CatherineHarke2) November 12, 2020
Agree! Make it mask mandatory first and if that does not work then do it!
— Joe Perez (@prideclt) November 12, 2020
Two weeks ago, Fauci had warned that Americans are in for “a whole lot of hurt” even as he predicted 100,000 or more cases a day and a rising death toll in the coming weeks. He said that the US must make an “abrupt change” in public health practices and behaviors. “We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation. All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly," the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) told The Washington Post.
Fauci criticized the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic. When asked about the approaches of the two presidential candidates, he said Joe Biden was “taking it seriously from a public health perspective", while Trump was “looking at it from a different perspective… the economy and reopening the country".
According to Fauci, who is part of the White House coronavirus task force, currently, the public health aspect of the task force has “diminished greatly". “The last time I spoke to the president was not about any policy, it was when he was recovering in Walter Reed, he called me up,” he explained. Fauci added that he called into meetings of other staffers but largely avoided the West Wing because “of all the infections there".
