Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, says a “real” economic recovery isn’t going to happen until the virus is “under control.”
Dr. Fauci was asked what his message would be to protesters in a number of states who have been taking to the streets to call for various “stay at home” orders to be lifted.
“I think the message is clearly this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics, from the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus,” he said in an interview that aired Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going to happen.”
“So what you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re going to set yourself back,” said Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “So as painful as it is to go by the careful guidelines of gradually phasing into a reopening, it’s going to backfire. That’s the problem.”
A number of states are on the cusp of reopening some businesses after the White House laid out guidance last week on benchmarks they should hit in terms of infections and testing to start a gradual reopening.
