Anthony Fauci on Friday told the House's select coronavirus committee that surging infections in the U.S. were caused by several factors, including states reopening without following social-distancing guidelines.
Why it matters: He was responding directly to a tweet from President Trump, who took to the platform during the hearing to repeat his claim that the U.S. has reported the most cases in the world due to increased testing.
- Reality check: The country's rise in cases in early July was not due solely to increased testing, as the number of new infections rose faster than the number of completed tests.
What Trump said: "Somebody please tell Congressman Clyburn, who doesn’t have a clue, that the chart he put up indicating more CASES for the U.S. than Europe, is because we do MUCH MORE testing than any other country in the World. If we had no testing, or bad testing, we would show very few CASES."
Fauci's response: "I stand by my previous statements that the increase in cases was due to a number of factors — one of which was that in the attempt to reopen, that in some situations, states did not abide strictly by the guidelines that the task force and the White House had put out," Fauci responded.
- "And others that even did abide by it, the people that were in the state actually were congregating in crowds and not wearing masks," he added.