Science and Health Officials Offer Sobering View of Reopening Readiness

"The scientists and public health officials who are leading the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday painted a sobering picture of a country ill-prepared to reopen and contain the spread of the virus in the coming months.

At a Senate hearing, the officials cautioned that a vaccine would almost certainly not come in time to protect students for the return to school in the fall, that a recently authorized treatment was not a game-changing advance and that states must rebuild their depleted public health systems by hiring enough people before they could effectively track the spread of the virus and contain it.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, warned that if parts of the country reopen too quickly, “there is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control, which, in fact, paradoxically, will set you back.”

Dr. Fauci said that approach would lead not only to “some suffering and death that could be avoided but could even set you back on the road to try to get economic recovery, because it would almost turn the clock back rather than going forward.”"

Katie Thomas, Denise Grady, Michael Mason, and Sheila Kaplan report for the New York Times May 12, 2020.

SEE ALSO:

"Ousted Vaccine Official To Warn Of ‘Darkest Winter’ If Virus Returns Without Better Response" (Washington Post)

"‘Not An Acceptable Answer’: Trump Rebukes Fauci’s Concern Over Reopening Schools" (Washington Post)

 

Source: NYTimes, 05/14/2020