The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said he personally would not attend President Trump’s upcoming campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday.
“No,” he answered when asked whether he would attend the event during an interview Tuesday with the Daily Beast.
“I’m in a high risk category. Personally, I would not. Of course not,” said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
When pressed about Trump’s planned rallies amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Fauci told the Daily Beast that “outside is better than inside, no crowd is better than crowd” and “crowd is better than big crowd.”
Those attending the rally are not required to wear masks, and social distancing measures will be next to impossible in the arena setting.
This as Tulsa announced its highest daily number of coronavirus infections Wednesday, and cases are rising across the state.
Fauci warned in a CNN interview Friday that there’s a risk of either “acquiring or spreading” the deadly coronavirus for those who attend the rally.
“When you are in a large crowd, if you have the congregation of people that are much, much close to each other, you definitely increase the risk that you will either acquire or spread infections,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Fauci said people are going to gather, despite the warnings.
“But the issue is, if they do, please wear a mask, all the time, because the mask will give you some protection. The best thing to do is to avoid crowded areas, but if you’re not going to do that, please wear a mask.”
