Looks like Fauci is gonna get fired next!
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America's top infectious diseases expert is warning that hundreds of thousands of Americans could die unless every citizen joins an effort to blunt the coronavirus pandemic -- only to be contradicted by President Donald Trump, who insists the virus is under "tremendous" control.
www.cnn.com
Trump unwilling to accept full reality of coronavirus
The President claims the outbreak is under control, contradicting reality and his own top expert
(CNN)America's top infectious diseases expert is warning that hundreds of thousands of Americans could die unless every citizen joins an effort to blunt
the coronavirus pandemic -- only to be contradicted by
President Donald Trump, who
insists the virus is under "tremendous" control.
The fresh sign of Trump's unwillingness to accept the full, sobering reality of the outbreak came as an anxious America knuckles down to its new self-isolating reality. The country is bracing for the full fury of the virus that is already escalating sharply and is set to subject the foundations of basic life — the nation's health care, economic and political systems — to a fateful test.
The number of US infections raced up to at least 3,485, including 65 deaths, up more than 500 cases in a day and up from a case load of 457 a week ago, showing how the crisis, that may not reach its peak for weeks, is accelerating.
Among his tweets on coronavirus Sunday, Trump suggested that his entire focus was not on the national emergency: He tweeted that he was thinking about a full pardon for his former national security adviser
Michael Flynn, who admitted lying to the FBI.
Earlier that day, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, warned that
the US could face a similar crisis as Italy if citizens do not fully embrace self-isolation and social distancing, which are designed to flatten the curve of infections.
Asked whether hundreds of thousands of Americans could die, Fauci said on
CNN's "State of the Union": "It could happen, and it could be worse." Fauci added that the limits on public life were designed to "try and make that not happen."
"If we go about our daily lives and not worry about everything," the death toll could be high, Fauci said. "People sometimes think that I'm overreacting. I like it when people are thinking I'm overreacting because that means we're doing it just right." Fauci also said he had not ruled out calling for a national lockdown in order to stem the spread of the virus.
The administration is expected to release
new guidelines on social distancing -- for instance relating to bars and restaurants -- on Monday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday
recommended not holding gatherings of 50 people or more for the next eight weeks. The White House Correspondents Association, which is urging its members to work from home when possible, has instituted a seating arrangement in which every other chair in the briefing room is vacant, and there are mandatory temperature checks for anyone seeking to enter White House grounds.
But serious questions remain over whether Trump's administration -- which was
slow to recognize the threat, mischaracterized its impact and seemed most concerned about mitigating political damage -- has now got the federal act together.
Trump flagrantly contradicted Fauci's warnings at a White House briefing Sunday at which he celebrated the
Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates to 0% to help the shocked economy.
"It's a very contagious virus, it's incredible, but it's something we have tremendous control of," the President said.
Listen to the CNN Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction podcast with chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta here.
In a possible indication of how Trump's repeated misinformation is having an impact, a
new poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal Sunday showed that while seven in 10 Democrats are worried that they or someone in their family may catch the coronavirus, only 40% of Republicans, who are more likely to believe what they hear from the President and in conservative media, feel the same.
Trump's upbeat predictions about the coronavirus crisis did not just contrast with Fauci's warnings, they also clashed with the conditions being experienced by local officials.
"We have been behind on this disease since day one," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, told Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room."
"I believe on any projection that that flattening of the curve is not going to be enough. I don't see it as a curve. I see it as a wave. And the wave is going to crash on to our hospital system."
The coronavirus also dominated the opening exchanges of
the CNN Democratic presidential debate on Sunday evening -- with former Vice President
Joe Biden and Vermont Sen.
Bernie Sanders standing six feet apart in a Washington studio to comply with government health guidelines -- both arguing they would be far better at handling the pandemic than Trump.
"This is like a war, and in a war you do whatever is needed to be done to take care of your people," Biden said.
Sanders was scathing about Trump's handling of the crisis.
"First thing we have got to do, whether or not I'm president, is to shut this President up right now, because he's undermining the doctors and the scientists who are trying to help the American people," Sanders said. "It is unacceptable for him to be blabbering with un-factual information, which is confusing the general public."
more...
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