There is “little appetite” for a US lockdown as the country faces a spike in coronavirus cases, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The White House coronavirus advisor told CNBC in an interview that the U.S. is “going in the wrong direction” as Covid-19 infections increase in 47 states and hospitals are reaching full capacity.
“If things do not change, if they continue on the course we’re on, there’s gonna be a whole lot of pain in this country with regard to additional cases and hospitalizations, and deaths,” Dr. Fauci said in an interview Wednesday evening on “The News with Shepard Smith.”
However, Dr. Fauci said that cities like Philadelphia and New York are more capable of dealing with the surge, whereas locations in the northwest and heartland may experience difficulty.
“They never had the kind of hospital and intensive care facility and flexibility that some of the larger hospitals in larger cities have,” said Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “They’re concerned that if the trajectory continues, they may be in a position where they are going to be strapped for things like intensive care beds,” said Fauci.
Covid cases and hospitalizations in the Midwest are increasing at record numbers. Wisconsin posted a 7-day positivity rate of 28% while Minnesota had its highest number of coronavirus hospitalizations to-date. Hospitalizations have increased thrice in less than three weeks in El Paso, Texas. Joel Hendricks, the Chief Medical Officer at El Paso’s University Medical Center, mentioned the possibility of rationing hospital care during an interview with NBC’S Gabe Gutierrez.
“Rationing of care is the worst thing doctors ever want to talk about,” said Hendricks. “Having said that, we have looked at that, we’re in the process of looking at that.”
According to Dr. Fauci, he does not see the U.S. implementing the same lockdown measures that Melbourne, Australia imposed to address its summer spike in cases. Melbourne only reopened Wednesday after spending shutting down for three months.
“There is very little appetite for a lockdown in this country,” said Fauci. “There’s going to be major pushback both from above and at the local level, however, what Melbourne did, what Australia did as a country, was very successful.”
Dr. Fauci recommended doubling down on masks, physical distancing, and avoiding crowds and gatherings amid Americans’ coronavirus fatigue, and stressed that the country would “be much better than we’re doing right now.”
A distressing trend
Jay Butler, the CDC’s deputy director for infectious diseases, said that US coronavirus outbreaks are happening “really in all parts of the country,” with high transmission in the Midwest.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing a distressing trend here in the United States,” he told reporters on a call. He said the surge is likely due to the arrival of cooler temperatures, adding, “Smaller, more intimate gatherings of family, friends, and neighbors may be driving transmission as well, especially as they move indoors.”
“I recognize that we are all getting tired of the impact Covid-19 has had on our lives,” he said. “We’re tired of wearing masks, but it continues to be as important as it has ever been and I would say even more important than ever as we move into the fall season.”
