Fauci: I Don’t Think U.S. Made Mistakes with Lockdowns

On Monday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show,” White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said he doesn’t think the United States made mistakes with lockdowns.

Host Hugh Hewitt asked, “If you’re studying the data, have you led to any conclusion on lockdowns? Because we have some states like California that went in hard for lockdowns, they’re not doing any better, indeed, they might be doing worse than Florida, which did not go in for lockdowns at all. So, the sunk costs on lockdown are enormous and prevent people from dealing with it objectively. But you understand sunk costs. Did we make mistakes on lockdowns?”

Fauci responded, “You know, Hugh, I don’t think so. I think the lockdown situation is really very complicated. Because there have been some states that said they locked down, and when you look at the actual tracking them on GPSs about how much they locked down, it isn’t nearly as much as was claimed. In fact, they did a comparison of the European lockdown versus the United States lockdown, and they did it by GPS, how many people go to the stores, how many people go to the parks. And when Europe locked down, they locked down a heck of a [lot] more strictly than we did.”

Hewitt then asked, “And it has efficacy? You believe it worked?”

Fauci responded, “Yes, it does. I mean, it has efficacy in suppressing the outbreak, but it also, as you say, and I agree, has significant economic consequences.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett