Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert in the U.S. government, provided a grim prediction this week regarding the Chinese virus situation in America, saying the country is “in for a whole lot of hurt” this winter due to rising cases and deaths.
Fauci’s prediction, made during an interview with the Washington Post just days before the presidential election, drew the ire of the White House, which accused the doctor of playing “politics.”
Fauci, a prominent member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told the Post on Friday:
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.
Fauci reportedly urged the U.S. to make an “abrupt change” in public health practices and behaviors.
“He said the country could surpass 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day and predicted rising deaths in the coming weeks,” the Post noted.
Fauci spoke to the newspaper amid tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump. The president has criticized Fauci’s advice during the early stages of the pandemic and accused the doctor of being a Democrat.
Referring to the pandemic, the NIAID director told the Post Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign “is taking it seriously from a public health perspective” while Trump is “looking at it from a different perspective.”
That perspective was “the economy and reopening the country,” Fauci added.
Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, lambasted Fauci for his comments.
Fauci “knows the risks [from the coronavirus] today are dramatically lower than they were only a few months ago,” Deere said in a statement to the newspaper.
Deere blasted Fauci for choosing “three days before an election to play politics” and “praising the President’s opponent — exactly what the American people have come to expect from the Swamp.”
The U.S. has reported a record number of new daily infections in recent days. However, daily testing has also reached historic highs. More testing allows officials to detect more cases.
Average daily test positivity rates are also reportedly far below peak levels from earlier this year.
New daily hospitalizations are rising, but at a much slower rate than infections and remain below peak levels.
The average daily rise in new fatalities has been relatively flat for about two months and remains much lower than record levels in April.
There is a lag time of about three weeks between infection and death. The current spike in cases began about three weeks ago.
Overall, the data shows that coronavirus is more widespread, but fewer people die after contracting it.
Some peer-reviewed studies have recently revealed a significant drop in mortality among hospitalized virus patients of all ages, suggesting doctors are getting better at helping patients survive the disease.
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