Fauci Cautions on US Reopening, Says It Could Cause More Deaths

(Photo : U.S. Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee/Handout via REUTERS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is seen in a frame grab from a video feed as he testifies remotely from his home during a U.S. Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response in Washington, U.S., May 12, 2020.

Contrasting to what United States President Donald Trump pushes to right a free-falling economy, on Tuesday US government's top infectious disease expert released a blunt warning that cities and states could experience a pandemic boomerang and see more coronavirus deaths and economic damage if they will rush in lifting the current stay-at-home orders.

Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned a Senate committee and the US as more than 20 states already begun to lift their lockdowns as the first step towards economic rehabilitation that there is a real risk that it may trigger an uncontrollable outbreak.

Despite the warnings received, President Trump insists that the US was making tremendous strides day after day.

With his reelection depending on a substantial degree in the economy, Trump talks up his administration's track with the virus on a daily basis.

Alongside with other experts, Fauci testified from their homes on how severe than pandemic could be, the expert's stressed on the seriousness of the global outbreak has reached Congress and the White House.

Lamar Alexander, Committee Chairman chaired the hearing from the study in his cabin in Tennessee, while several committee members attended in person in an eerily empty Capitol Hill chamber, wearing a mask and with a 6 feet apart sitting arrangement.

Playing out in many other countries as well aside from the US, the tension in balancing people's safety from the virus against the serious economic fallout also reflects in other nations like Italy which partially lifted lockdown restrictions last week only to a huge climb in confirmed coronavirus infections in its hardest-hit area while Lebanon relaxed a countrywide lockdown late last month, on Tuesday the lockdown protocol is being reinstated for the rest of the week as there is a big spike in reported infections.

Sharing his insight on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Fauci emphasized that more infections and deaths are inevitable as people again start gathering, but how prepared communities are to stamp out those sparks will track how bad the rebound is.

He also mentioned that there is no doubt that even under the best of circumstances when you pull back on mitigation you will discover some cases appear.

He also added that by moving too quickly, the consequences could be really serious as it will not only cause suffering and death but it could even set us back on the road trying to get an economic comeback.

On the other hand, Trump has been pressuring states to reopen with 30 million people currently unemployed in the United States due to the pandemic.

However, 17 states did not meet a key white House benchmark for loosening lockdown restrictions which is a 14-day downward path in new cases. Yet many of those started to reopen or about so, including states like Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Maine, Nebraska, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Utah.

Out of the 33 states that are heading downwards in the new infections rate's path, 25 of them are partially opened of forwarding to open within days, while other states that have not seen any decline in 14 days, they remain closed despite hitting some benchmarks.