#ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.
Fauci, top health officials warn of covid-19 surge, contradict Trump on testing
Jun 24. 2020
By The Washington Post · Yasmeen Abutaleb · NATIONAL, HEALTH, CONGRESS
WASHINGTON – Top federal health officials warned Tuesday that surges in coronavirus infections in more than a dozen states could worsen without new restrictions, and contradicted President Donald Trump’s recent claims that he told officials to slow testing so the country would record fewer cases.
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the country is still in the grip of the pandemic’s first wave, including a “disturbing surge” of new cases in southern and western states, including Florida, Texas and Arizona.
“That’s something I’m really quite concerned about,” Fauci said. “A couple of days ago, there were 30,000 new infections. That’s very disturbing to me.”
The hearing came on the same day that Arizona reported record-high new coronavirus cases, and both Texas and Arizona reported record hospitalizations. Trump held a campaign rally in Phoenix Tuesday, days after his trip to Tulsa, another site of surging infections. Last week, Texas, Florida, Arizona and at least seven other states reported their highest weekly infection-rate averages.
At least 119,000 deaths have been reported in the United States as of Tuesday afternoon, along with more than 2.3 million infections. Worldwide, there are more than 9 million confirmed cases of the virus.
All four health officials testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee denied they had ever been directed to reduce testing after Trump told rally goers in Tulsa, Okla., that he had charged officials to “slow the testing down.” White House officials have insisted Trump was speaking in jest.
Yet on Tuesday, Trump undercut that defense, telling reporters, “I don’t kid,” and elaborated further on Twitter.
“Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country, and ever expanding,” he tweeted ahead of the hearing. “With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!”
Fauci, Centers for Disease Control and Protection Director Robert Redfield, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, all replied “no” when asked if they had ever received a directive to conduct fewer tests.
“I know for sure none of us have ever been told to slow down on testing,” Fauci said. “That just is a fact. In fact, we will be doing more testing.”
Giroir told the committee that he expects the country to be able to conduct 40 million to 50 million tests a month by the fall, and that officials are working to increase the nation’s testing capacity, as well as the quality of the tests.
Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials have dismissed the recent increase in cases of covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, insisting the increase is largely due to boosts in testing. However, there is a broad consensus among public health experts that the outbreaks are occurring as states reopen and people congregate in confined spaces without observing social distancing measures, or consistently wearing masks.
Fauci and Giroir said the outbreaks in much of the country were being driven by increased community transmission. Fauci also said the country was still in the middle of the first wave because it had not decreased infections or deaths to a low enough level.
Health officials also warned of a difficult fall and winter because the U.S. health care system will likely battle two highly contagious, respiratory viruses: covid-19 and the seasonal flu. They also said it was inevitable the country would see more cases as states continued to reopen and emphasized the importance of getting outbreaks under control to allow local health officials to isolate confirmed cases and conduct contact tracing to prevent cases from spiraling out of control.
Fauci implored the public – but especially younger people – to wear masks when out in public. More young people have been contributing to the increase in cases in recent weeks, he said.
He said he had never seen a virus that produced such a wide range of symptoms and severity of disease, ranging from people who have no symptoms at all, to those requiring ventilators, to others who spend weeks in the hospital and end up dying. Even though most people recover from the coronavirus, Fauci said healthy people who are infected but show no symptoms or have mild symptoms still end up contributing to the outbreak by potentially infecting the most vulnerable.
Many of the health officials’ statements during Tuesday’s hearing contradicted or undercut the sunny messages from Trump, Pence and other White House officials. Pence last week penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed with the headline, “There isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave,'” that touted the administration’s progress. Trump has said outbreaks in specific areas are “embers” of the virus that can quickly be stamped out.
Fauci was upbeat on one front: He told lawmakers he was “cautiously optimistic” that a vaccine would be available by the end of the year, or in early 2021, based on early clinical data. Hahn vowed to let science and data dictate whether the FDA would grant a limited or full approval of a vaccine and said he had never come under political pressure to make a decision, as critics have alleged.
In response to questioning from Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., Fauci and Redfield said they were not directly consulted about the decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization.
Last month, Trump said the United States would be “terminating our relationship” with the WHO, arguing the organization is effectively controlled by Beijing. He said that the organization’s more than $400 million annual U.S. contribution would be diverted to other health groups.
Asked by McNerney whether he has any concerns about the president’s plans, Fauci replied, “Yes, I do.”
He added: “Despite any policy issues that come from higher up in the White House, we at the operational level continue to interact with the WHO in a very meaningful way … literally on a day-by-day basis.”
The hearing at one point turned confrontational. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., asked Fauci if he regretted that he had not more forcefully urged people to wear masks in late March, when the administration was advising the public there was no consensus on whether they were effective.
Fauci appeared displeased with the question.
“OK, we’re going to play that game,” he said. “Let me explain to you what happened back then.”
After McKinley told him that he sought a simple “yes” or “no,” Fauci shot back, “No, there’s more than a yes or no, by the tone of your question. I don’t regret that, because let me explain to you what happened.”
He continued: “At that time, there was a paucity of equipment that our health-care providers needed. … We did not want to divert masks and PPE away from them to be used by the people. Now that we have enough, we recommend” wearing masks.
In response to another question, Fauci said he had never personally directed Trump to wear a face mask. The president is notoriously resistant to wearing one in public despite federal guidelines recommending it to help slow the virus’ spread.
Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., asked Redfield how often he interacts with Trump about the coronavirus – a question Redfield refused to answer directly.
The issue has come to the fore recently as Trump appears to be spending less time seeking the advice of the administration’s leading health experts. Fauci said in a radio interview last week that he had not spoken directly to Trump in two weeks.
“Well, I have regular interactions as part of the White House task force, as a member,” Redfield said, referring to the group led by Pence. “As it relates to my interactions directly with the president, I’m going to keep those between myself and the president.”
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