Fauci: Coronavirus ‘Allowed’ to Perpetuate in U.S. Because Only ‘50% of the Country Locked Down’

Thursday during a radio interview with the BBC, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci said the United States is facing a resurgence of the coronavirus because “even in the most strict lockdown, only about 50% of the country locked down.”

Fauci said, “Well obviously it’s a serious situation if you look at the different curves between the European Union, the U.K. and others how they handled the outbreak, they had big spikes and then brought it down almost or even to baseline in some countries. The situation in the United States is very problematic.”

He continued, “We are seeing very disturbing spikes in different individual states in the United States. What we’ve seen over the last several days is a spike in cases that are way beyond the worst spikes that we’ve seen. That is not good news. We’ve got to get that under control, or we risk an even greater outbreak in the United States.”

He added, “When you look at the fact that we never got things to baseline where so many counties in Europe, the U.K., and other countries did. They closed down to the tune of 97% lockdown. In the United States, even in the most strict lockdown, only about 50% of the country locked down. That allowed the perpetuation of the outbreak that we never did get under very good control. And now, all you have to do is take a look at the news at night, and you see people congregating at bars without masks, congregating in different types of groups that are well beyond the recommended number. What happens when you do that, and you don’t wear a mask, you get the kind of outbreaks we’re seeing.”

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