Jul 2, 2020 - Health

Fauci: Coronavirus surges mark a "very disturbing week" in the U.S.

Orion Rummler

Fauci testifies while wearing a suit and tie — Fauci testifies to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on June 30. Photo: Al Drago/AFP via Getty Images

NIAID director Anthony Fauci told medical journal JAMA on Thursday that it has been a "very disturbing week" for the spread of the novel coronavirus in the U.S.

What's happening: The number of coronavirus cases increased in the vast majority of states over the last week, and decreased in only two states plus the District of Columbia, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports.

What he's saying: "Right now, if you look at the number of cases, it's quite disturbing. We're setting records, practically every day, of new cases in the numbers that are reported. That clearly is not the right direction."

Fauci described the "feeling of an all-or-none phenomenon" in some areas in the U.S. that are reopening, "where you're either a lockdown, or you're just going to say, 'the devil may care,' and just let it all go."
"And we saw that in the way people were congregating in crowds, which is understandable that people want to get out there ... but it was done in so many respects at bars and at congregations without masks on, which is so highly predictable that you're gonna get into trouble," Fauci told JAMA editor-in-chief Howard Bauchner.
Parts of Florida, Arizona, Texas and California together accounted for roughly 50% of new infections recently seen in the entire country, Fauci said.

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Fauci: Coronavirus surges mark a "very disturbing week" in the U.S.

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