Surgeon General Jerome Adams: Most of the U.S. Won’t Be Ready to Open by May 1

Appearing Friday on Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams predicted that most of the United States will not be able to re-open for business by May 1.

(Watch from 2:00)

A partial transcript is as follows: 

ED HENRY: On that question about re-opening the country, re-opening the economy, Dr. Fauci said this morning on CNN: “Now is not the time to back-off social distancing.” Is May 1, the beginning of May as you just referred to, the president has referred to, is that a realistic timetable to re-open the country?

DR. JEROME ADAMS: We’re going to be data-driven. I absolutely agree with Dr. Fauci. Now is the time to continue to lean into this because we know the more we participate in social distancing, the flatter the curve is and the quicker we can get to the other side. There are places around the country that have seen consistently low levels, and as we ramp up testing and can feel more confident that these places actually can do surveillance, and can do public health follow-up, some places will be able to think about opening on May 1. Most of the country will not, to be honest with you, but some will. That’s how we’ll re-open the country, place by place, bit by bit, based on the data.