Reopening the economy in May is "a bit overly optimistic," according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top infectious disease expert in the US.
Fauci pointed out that there are no critical testing and tracing procedures yet in the country that can help combat the coronavirus pandemic in the US. These are necessary in discussing if reopening the economy in May is possible.
Fauci warned the public about increasingly optimistic forecasts from the White House.
“We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet,” he said in an interview with AP.
Fauci made such comment when President Donald Trump and others in the administration claim that businesses can reopen soon. They also hinted that Americans can return to work weeks after the coronavirus pandemic put the economy to a halt.
Trump mentioned the possibility of reopening the economy in some parts of the US by May 1. He later issued guidelines that describe conditions necessary for areas of the country to allow employees to resume work.
However, Fauci considers the May 1 target “a bit overly optimistic” for many areas of the country. He added that any easing off the social distancing measures must unfold on a “rolling” basis.
Not all at once, he emphasized, recalling the ways COVID-19 hit different parts of the country at different times.
Fauci’s major concerns include new outbreaks in locations where social distancing has been relaxed. Meanwhile, public health officials are not yet capable of rapidly testing the public for the virus. It is also not yet easy to isolate new cases and trace the people that an infected patient came into contact with.
“I’ll guarantee you, once you start pulling back there will be infections. It’s how you deal with the infections that’s going count,” Fauci told the AP.
Fauci's role in the White House
Fauci, who is in charge of critical government research, serves as one of the administration’s leading spokespeople on the virus. He stands alongside Trump as he delivers White House briefings.
The health expert thinks the duration of those briefings is “really draining." “If I had been able to just make a few comments and then go to work, that would have really been much better,” he said.
“It isn’t the idea of being there and answering questions, which I really think is important for the American public. It’s the amount of time.”
Moreover, Fauci’s work outside of the White House briefing room focused on analyzing progress on blood tests. These tests aim to identify the people exposed to the coronavirus. These tests can detect antibodies their immune system formed to fight back. This is instrumental to determining when and how people can go back to work.
Effectiveness of antibody tests
Fauci warned that most of the tests have not yet been proven to work well. He added that some countries purchased millions of antibody tests only to learn they did not work.
Moreover, Fauci believes that a second wave of infection is not inevitable. However, he clarified that “if you mean it goes way down and then come September, October, November, we have another peak, I have to say I would not be surprised."
"I would hope that if and when that occurs, that we jump all over it in a much, much more effective way than we have in these past few months," he said.
