Appearing Monday on ABC News’ Good Morning America, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, responded to the growing number of protests against stay-at-home orders implemented due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, warning that reopening states prematurely will “backfire.”
“Clearly this is something that this is hurting …. but unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery, economically, is not going to happen.” — NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci on protests against stay-at-home orders. pic.twitter.com/n7x3cunEAm
— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 20, 2020
A partial transcript is as follows:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We’re seeing these protests crop up all across the country right now, including those protests in Texas and other places where they are saying “Fire Anthony Fauci, Fauci is wrong,” and resisting these stay-at-home orders from governors. What’s your message back to those protesters?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: I think the message is, clearly, this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics and the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus, but 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. 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.
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