Fauci: We Don’t Need to Shut Down Again, But Hard-Hit States Should Pause Reopening

During an interview with the Hill on Thursday, White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that he doesn’t think we need to revert back to “an extreme” of shutting back down, but that hard-hit states should start “pausing in their opening process, looking at what did not work well, and try to mitigate that.”

Fauci said, “I would hope we don’t have to resort to shutdown. I think that would be something that is obviously an extreme. I think it would not be viewed very favorably, even by the states and the cities involved. So, rather than think in terms of reverting back down to a complete shutdown, I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process, looking at what did not work well, and try to mitigate that. I don’t think we need to go back to an extreme of shutting down.”

He specifically cited California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida as states that have been hit hard recently, and stated, “We’ve got to get them to do very fundamental things: closing bars, avoiding congregations of large numbers of people, getting the citizenry in those states to wear masks, maintain six-foot distance, washing hands.”

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