The nation got a few answers on when life might return closer to normal, as America’s top health officials warned Tuesday that there’s still much…
The nation got a few answers on when life might return closer to normal, as America’s top health officials warned Tuesday that there’s still much that scientists don’t know about the novel coronavirus, including its impact on children.
Testifying remotely via video before the Senate were Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Stephen Hahn, head of the Food and Drug Administration; Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Brett Giroir, an assistant secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services who is leading a national effort on testing.
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Here are five things to know about their testimony on when schools and businesses might reopen.
Fauci warned of ‘suffering and death’ if states reopen too soon
Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, sternly warned lawmakers that their home states will trigger an outbreak and set back their economic recovery if they move too soon to reopen schools and businesses.
He repeated his plea for states to follow general guidelines that call for areas to reopen slowly, and only if cases decline for 14 days. Many states have pushed back on the recommendations and reopened without following them, which Fauci said was a bad idea.
“There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control,” he said.
What’s more, he added, is that the resulting “suffering and death” could “even set you back on the road to trying to get economic recovery.”
Sen. Paul went after Fauci, and Fauci pushed back
Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who was the first senator to test positive for the virus, called it a “huge mistake” not to let kids return to school sooner and called the virus “relatively benign” outside of New England.
