Anthony Fauci, the U.S.’s top infectious diseases expert, warned Tuesday that the country is “entering into a risk period” for rising coronavirus infections as fall begins.
Asked by CNN’s Sanjay Gupta “how bad … this could get” in the fall, Fauci responded, “It’s always the balance of trying not to frighten people at the same time of trying to jolt them into a realization of what needs to be done to protect themselves as individuals and the country.”
“We are entering into a risk period and we’ve got to act accordingly as we enter into that risk period,” Fauci said.
“If you look at our country, there are some areas that are doing quite well. It isn’t a situation where everything seems to be spiking and going in the wrong direction. There are some areas that are doing quite well,” he added. “We can use them as a model … of getting a low level of test positivity where you’re talking about 1 percent or less, or a fraction of a percent.”
“What worries me is that in those areas of the country, which is a large country, heterogeneous in many ways, if you don’t have the control now as we get towards the end of September, of getting such a low percentage that it is entirely manageable … when things change that work against you — and what works against you now is we’re getting into a weather season where people will be spending more time indoors,” he added. ”Those are things I get concerned about as we get into October and November and December.”
Fauci said he did not see the worst-case scenario as inevitable, saying “it is within our hands to prevent that.”
“We know we could get into serious trouble if we don’t do certain things,” he said. “And I hope that that understanding is not going to frighten people, but will jolt them into realizing that it is within our hands to prevent that.”