August 5 coronavirus news

Dr. Anthony Fauci said the coronavirus testing challenges in the United States are "unacceptable — period," during an interview with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Gupta explained a situation last week when he was preparing for brain surgery and couldn’t get the timely result of a Covid-19 test.

“I got a CAT scan on my patient, I got coagulation numbers on my patient, I got a cardiac echo on my patient, I was doing brain surgery on this patient, and could not get a Covid result,” Gupta explained.

Gupta asked why, after so many months, do we still have this problem?

“I could bend myself into a pretzel trying to get out of that question,” Fauci answered. “It’s unacceptable – period.”

“You a real world example of why we got to do better,” he said. 

“There you were in the operating room, having to put on PPE,” because the patient’s Covid status was unknown, Fauci said. “That is totally unacceptable, and for me to say anything different is distorting reality.” 

Fauci went on to say that "the ultimate goal, is that you would have a test that you could do and get a result in 10 minutes, that's sensitive, specific and can be upscaled in the sense of – you can do it any place, in anywhere."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking to CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta during a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health forum, said coronavirus has the world in “uncharted territory.”

When it evolves, that’s when science needs to drive the recommendations, “particularly things like masks and crowds, indoor/outdoor, aerosol, not aerosol – these are things that we're learning as time goes by, and you do the best you can to make the recommendation, based on the data that you have right now,” Fauci said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday that the US had a "disparate" response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

"We live in a very big country, and we often leave the decisions about the implementation of things at the local level. And what we've seen is a great disparity in how individual states, cities, etcetera, responded," Fauci told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in a virtual forum hosted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and The New England Journal of Medicine.

Fauci explained that the US never got the number of new daily Covid-19 cases low enough to reopen in a safe way compared to other countries. Fauci added that states also didn't open uniformly, causing numbers to jump back up.

"We can do much better," Fauci added.

Dr. Anthony Fauci says wearing a mask should not be a political issue.

Speaking with CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta during a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health forum on Wednesday, Fauci said, “There's such a divergence of how people view this [wearing masks].”

“A little while ago, you know, it depends on whether you wear a mask on how you feel politically, which was completely ridiculous,” he said.

 “The mask is a public health tool,” he added.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, warned that if the US does not have a unified response against Covid-19, the country is at risk of continuing to "smolder."

Speaking to CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Fauci used the metaphor of a rowing team, noting that while watching matches of his daughter who was on a varsity crew team in college, he learned that to "win the race" all those on the boat must be "rowing in unison."

Fauci added that he thinks this lack of unity "is the problem."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said a mixed message around coronavirus is what is driving new cases.

“The good news about Covid-19 is that about 40% of the population has no symptoms. … The bad news, for messaging, is that 40% of the population get no symptoms," he told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta during a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health forum.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci said there's "a degree of anti-science feeling in this country" while speaking to CNN's Sanjay Gupta today.

Fauci said he believes this feeling about science by some is "almost related to authority and a mistrust in authority."

He said that sometimes scientists are "looked upon as being authoritative figure" and those that mistrust science thinks that "pushing back on authority, they're pushing back on government, it's the same as pushing back on science." 

"Unfortunately, that's not what scientists are," he continued.

Fauci added that scientists need to be "more transparent in reaching out to people and engaging society and understanding why science and evidence-based policy is so important." 

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Dr. Anthony Fauci said that receiving death threats for advocating public health principles has been stressful for him and his family, during an interview on Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health forum with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta .

"Getting death threats for me and my family and harassing my daughters to the point where I have to get security, it just, it’s amazing," Fauci told Gupta.

Fauci also discussed how he has adjusted to "chronic exhaustion" since starting to work on the coronavirus task force.

"I'm doing fine... I can't complain. I think the energy and adrenaline rush and the focus comes from the, what you said, the importance of the problem," Fauci said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, said when it comes to coronavirus in the United States, the country has suffered “as much or worse than anyone.”

Speaking to CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta during a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health forum, Fauci said, “When you look at the number of infections and the number of deaths, it really is quite, quite concerning.”