Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said while he’s encouraged by the coronavirus response in some areas of the country, overall the numbers aren’t great.
“We have in this country now, you know, close to 200,000 deaths,” Fauci said Monday night on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
“We have 6 million plus infections. You can’t look at that and say that’s terrific.”
But Fauci said he does see some encouraging developments.
“There are parts of the country that have done well, that are doing well,” he said. “Right now, what I’m liking that I’m seeing is that some of the numbers are coming down.”
But the baseline is still too high, Fauci said.
The number of new infections never got below 20,000 new cases a day.
“When we tried to open up the economy, as it were, some states jumped ahead of the guidelines, some people didn’t listen to what the governors and what the mayors were saying, and remember, we went way up to 70,000 and now we’re coming back down to 30 or 40,000 (new cases a day).”
Fauci said he’s concerned that the number of new infections are still too high as fall and winter set in and people will have to remain indoors more.
You’re at a disadvantage when you have 40,000 new infections a day, Fauci said.
“That is not a good place to be.”
