Washington: A day after Donald Trump said “we’ve prevailed” in expanding testing enough to start reopening the U.S. economy, the president’s top health experts offered a more cautionary assessment as they warned about the perils of moving too quickly.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday at a Senate Health Committee hearing, warning that Americans “need to stay vigilant with social distancing.”
That need was underscored by the fact that all of the witnesses and many of the lawmakers appeared by remote video from their homes or offices, in some cases in modified self-quarantine after exposure to the virus. Most of the discussion was about testing that still falls short and a vaccine that’s unlikely to arrive before 2021.
The caution that carried the most weight — and weighed on markets — came from Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious diseases. He said communities that ignore federal guidelines for safely reopening are in danger of new outbreaks. The S&P 500 extended losses, slipping 2.1%.
“There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control,” Fauci said. “In fact, paradoxically it will set you back — not only leading to some suffering and death that could be avoided but it could even set you back on the road on trying to get economic recovery. That would turn the clock back rather than going forward.”
The caution was in contrast to Trump’s remarks in the White House’s Rose Garden on Monday, when he said “we’ve prevailed,” and added that “what I’m talking about is we have a great testing capacity now.”
Most members of both parties stopped well short of Trump’s boast.
Also read: There will be needless deaths if US reopens too fast, Fauci to warn Senate today
Finger-Pointing
Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, urged Democrats to refrain from “finger-pointing.” Still, he called the Trump administration’s testing efforts “impressive but not nearly enough.”
As for the finger-pointing, Senator Patty Murray, the panel’s top Democrat, said “the Trump administration’s response to this public health emergency so far has been a disaster all on its own.”
“Delays, missteps have put us way behind where we need to be on diagnostic tests and allowed inaccurate antibody tests to come to market,” said Murray, whose home state of Washington was the first in the U.S. to be hit with a wave of coronavirus cases. “Corruption and political interference have impeded efforts to secure desperately needed personal protective equipment and promoted dangerous, unproven treatments.”
Some Republicans expressed an eagerness to reopen their states, including Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who said stay-at-home measures were never seen as a longterm solution.
‘Unrealistic, Impossible’
“We didn’t set out with the goal of preventing 100% fatalities,” Scott said. “That would be unrealistic. It is impossible. And we didn’t set out to keep quarantines in place until we found a safe and effective vaccine. That would take too long.”
He urged concentrating on what states can do to protect the most vulnerable — older Americans and those with underlying conditions — while still getting the economy back up and running.
GOP Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was more blunt. Paul, who tested positive for coronavirus earlier in the pandemic, said that “if we keep kids out of school for another season” poor children will go another year without learning.
Fauci responded that “we better be careful” not to be “cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects” of the virus.
In one of the hearing’s sharper exchanges, Paul said Fauci shouldn’t be thought of as “the end-all” on the coronavirus issue. Calling for a faster reopening of the economy, Paul the virus had been “relatively benign” in much of the country.
“The history of this when we look back will be wrong prediction after wrong prediction,” Paul said.
Fauci, who asked to be allowed to respond, said his advice was based on “the best scientific evidence” available.
“I have never made myself out to be the end-all and only voice in this,” Fauci said.
Under questioning by Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, all of the witnesses denied what she portrayed as inaccurate media reports that they had strained dealings with Trump. “There is certainly not a confrontational relationship between me and the president,” Fauci said.
Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary Brett Giroir testified that states and territories aim to do 12.9 million tests over the next four weeks. That compares with about 9.4 million tests that the U.S. has done to date.
‘Likely Higher’
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination this year, said Trump “downplayed” the risks of the pandemic and has retaliated against officials who spoke out.
Asked by Sanders if Fauci agrees with official estimates that about 80,000 Americans have died, he said “most of us feel the number of deaths is likely higher,” adding “almost certainly it’s higher.”
Fauci also said a renewed outbreak in the fall is possible “even if we get better control” over the pandemic.
The government scientist also said the U.S. should be careful because much was still being learned about the virus – including the “strange inflammatory syndrome” observed in some children.
Trump had blocked Fauci from testifying to a House panel on the coronavirus, saying that chamber is controlled by Democrats and “they put every Trump hater on the committee.”
Many of the exchanges during Tuesday’s 3 1/2-hour hearing underscored how much uncertainty surrounds reopening.
Alexander started off by asking witnesses how and whether the University of Tennessee might reopen in August. Fauci said testing will be crucial given that a vaccine isn’t expected to be available by the fall.
“The strategy that’s going to be employed really depends heavily on what’s the community spread at that time,” Giroir told Alexander.
As many as 30 million point-of-care tests could be available by the fall, Giroir said, but other strategies might make more sense. One option he suggested: testing wastewater from dorms for signs of the virus. – Bloomberg
Also read: ‘Extremely unusual’ if Covid patients don’t develop antibodies, top US scientist Fauci says