Fauci: I'm not going to out-guess Cuomo, other governors on coronavirus measures
Dr.. Anthony Fauci discusses the latest on coronavirus measures from states and the Biden administration with 'America Reports.'
Biden chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed reluctance Wednesday to rehash Trump administration policy or second-guess coronavirus decision-making by governors like New York's Andrew Cuomo, telling Fox News in a wide-ranging interview "let's look forward."
Asked about criticism from Biden officials of the Trump administration's handling of the virus, Fauci told "America Reports" that discussion of the past was "not productive."
"Right now, let's look forward about what President Biden has said, how we're going to get as many doses in as many people as we can," he said. "That's why he has his plan, which I want to emphasize, it's a floor, not a ceiling, to get 100 million doses into people in the first 100 days."
Adding that he was uninterested in critiquing individual politicians like Cuomo, Fauci urged relief for restaurant owners and others affected by shutdowns in New York City and elsewhere. He also discussed school reopenings and the Biden administration's decision to rejoin the World Health Organization, which has come under sharp criticism for its handling of the pandemic and deference to China.
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"I understand greatly the strain that is on local businesses and restaurants and others, that that's the reason why we need help," he said. "We need to be able to get resources [so] that if indoor dining is going to be prohibited, we've got to have help to the owners of those organizations, so they don't go under during a period of time when we're trying to correct and get our arms around this outbreak."
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: We need to take it very seriously. The U.K. strain, which is one that has a certain set of mutations, is already in 25 or more states in the United States. It has been shown, according to the work that we're doing [and] by our colleagues in the U.K, to be more transmissible ... With regard to the vaccines that we're using, there does not seem to be any negative impact on the ability of the vaccine to protect against the U.K. strain ...
I really don't want to go back and rehash [the Trump administration]. That is not productive ... A lot of good things did happen with Operation Warp Speed during those months, several months ago. Right now let's look forward about what President Biden has said, how we're going to get as many doses in as many people as we can. That's why he has his plan, which I want to emphasize, it's a floor, not a ceiling, to get 100 million doses into people in the first 100 days ...
I'm not going to be out here out-guessing [New York Governor Andrew Cuomo] who is on the ground in his or her own state ... No, we're not going there. I'm not going to be out-guessing individual governors ... What I'm going to tell you are the general principles and each individual state, with their governor, [each] city with their mayor, will make their own decisions ...
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I understand greatly the strain that is on local businesses and restaurants and others, that's the reason why we need help. We need to be able to get resources [so] that if indoor dining is going to be prohibited, we've got to have help to the owners of those organizations so they don't go under during a period of time when we're trying to correct and get our arms around this outbreak.
Children in school right now, it appears that if you follow the safety guidelines of the CDC, that they are less likely to be getting infected than the community rate of infection. That's the reason why, as President Biden has said, we're going to try as best as we can within the framework of following the CDC guidelines to get children back to school. I've been saying that for months and months ...
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If you listened, which I think you did, but not everybody had the opportunity to carefully look at the words when I made the announcement that we will be rejoining the WHO. At least twice during that announcement, I made it very clear that we would expect reforms in [the] WHO, and we would take those reforms very seriously. Next, we said we were very much in favor of the investigation of the origins of this virus ...
The discussion is changing, not the goalposts. So the CDC doesn't officially recommend wearing double masks. What they're saying is you know what would be a good start? If everybody wears at least one mask. I think that would be important. So the CDC recommendations have not changed. What we're trying to do is to get individuals that are not wearing masks to wear masks.