White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that there are early signs that Tennessee, Kentucky and other Midwest states could face a novel coronavirus outbreak and leaders should be careful because we “can’t afford another surge.”
States like Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana are “starting to have” a “very early indication” of rising COVID-19 positivity rates – a “surefire sign that you’ve got to be really careful,” Fauci told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” Tuesday.
ABC News reported that Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged states to reopen in a manner consistent with the federal government’s guidelines for reopening.
Fauci said if the guidelines are followed, “I think we can prevent the surges that we’ve seen in the southern states, because we just can’t afford, yet again, another surge.”
When asked if the U.S. needs a coordinated, national reopening strategy, Fauci pointed to the guidelines the federal government had already released and asked states to “rethink what happens when you don’t adhere to that.”
Fauci also responded to a claim retweeted by President Donald Trump that said the CDC and doctors are “lying.”
Two weeks ago, Trump retweeted a post from former “Love Connection” host and conservative commentator Chuck Woolery, who wrote, “Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election.”
“I don’t know how to address that. I’m just going to certainly continue doing my job,” Fauci told GMA. “You know, I don’t tweet. I don’t even read them.”
“This is what I do, this is what I’ve been trained for my entire professional life, and I’ll continue to do it,” Fauci said. “I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.”
Fauci also addressed hydroxychloroquine, the drug Trump self-administered that has since had its emergency authorization revoked by the FDA. Trump on Monday night tweeted his praises of the hydroxychloroquine, but Fauci told “GMA,” “The overwhelming, prevailing clinical trials … have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease.”