National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci just wrapped up testimony in front of the House Oversight Committee on the coronavirus outbreak. Some highlights. . .
“It’s going to get wore”:
From inside the House Oversight Hearing room NIH’s Dr. Anthony Fauci delivers this warning to the American people in his exchange with Rep.Maloney: “Is the worst yet to come Dr. Fauci?”
Fauci: “Yes it is…Things will get worse…The bottom line it’s going to get worse.” pic.twitter.com/tU9lF8fqJA— Suzanne Malveaux (@SuzanneMalveaux) March 11, 2020
Fauci again: “We’ve got to assume that it’s gonna get worse and worse and worse.”
— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) March 11, 2020
Rep. Carolyn Maloney on coronavirus spreading: “Is the worst yet to come, Dr. Fauci?”
“Yes, it is,” Dr. Fauci says, adding that whenever you have an outbreak where there’s “community spread,” you won’t be able to “effectively and efficiently contain it.” https://t.co/769REmVlkJ pic.twitter.com/SM9MJ8fq7S
— ABC News (@ABC) March 11, 2020
He warned that if not handled correctly, “many, many millions” could be infected:
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Fauci tells House committee "many millions" could contract coronavirus if it isn't handled wellhttps://t.co/r7ovKsHIAK
— Spenser Hickey (@SpenserHickey) March 11, 2020
And he said there will be no vaccine in the next few months:
Q: Is there any evidence we will have a vaccine in a few months?
Fauci: No.— Erin Banco (@ErinBanco) March 11, 2020
He also recommended the cancelation of events with large crowds, including NBA games:
* NIH'S FAUCI SAYS "WE WOULD RECOMMEND THAT THERE NOT BE LARGE CROWDS, IF THAT MEANS NOT HAVING ANY PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE WHEN THE NBA PLAYS, SO BE IT"@reuters #covid19
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) March 11, 2020
Q: The Ivy League cancelled their bball tournament. Should NBA games continue amid the #coronavirus outbreak?
Dr. Fauci: "We would recommend there not be large crowds, if that means not having any people in the audience when the NBA plays, so be it"
— Ali Zaslav (@alizaslav) March 11, 2020
He wants people to stop comparing it to the flu noting that coronavirus is 10X more lethal:
"The flu has a mortality of 0.1%. This is ten times that," Dr. Fauci tells House hearing. People need to take this seriously, he says.
— Dan De Luce (@dandeluce) March 11, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci: "It is ten times more lethal than the seasonal flu."
Watch full #Coronavirus hearing here: https://t.co/qUfpOTAqTq pic.twitter.com/Zfo4SShnij
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 11, 2020
We need to take mitigation steps even if the coronavirus isn’t in our area:
Fauci says people should take mitigation steps even if there are few cases in their area.
"If we wait until we have many many more cases, we will be weeks behind…We have to change our behavior. We have to essentially assume we are going to get hit."
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) March 11, 2020
Warm weather may help stop the spread of it, but we can’t count on that:
Fauci says coming warm weather might help stem rise of coronavirus but we don’t know for certain.
"We would hope that as we get to warm weather that it would go down. But we can't proceed under that assumption,” he tells lawmakers
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) March 11, 2020
On cuts to the infectious diseases group on the National Security Council:
Dr. Fauci is asked about the president cutting the NSC desk that would have handled coronavirus.
"We worked well with them. It would be nice if it was still around"
— Erin Banco (@ErinBanco) March 11, 2020
The hearing ended with some confusion over the schedule with Dr. Fauci and Dr. Redfield called back to the White House for meeting:
Maloney: "I've been told our witnesses need to leave now" .. "There seems to be a great deal of confusion and lack of coordination at the White House" .. She wants to reconvene the hearing at 2p w/ Fauci and Redfield, if WH will release them to return
— Tom LoBianco (@tomlobianco) March 11, 2020
Although it’s not clear what’s going on with this WH meeting:
Spoke to several people right before the briefing ended. The line from the admin was that the witnesses were called away for a previously scheduled meeting. That Dr. Fauci had misspoken when he said it was emergency. But no one has been able to say what meeting this is.
— Erin Banco (@ErinBanco) March 11, 2020
We’ll find out at 3:30:
Fauci said publicly the task force meeting is at 3:30 p.m.
— Erin Banco (@ErinBanco) March 11, 2020
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