Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force team, gave a grim assessment of where things could be headed with regard to the total number of new cases of COVID-19 infections seen daily in the United States.
The country is “going in the wrong direction” in terms of controlling the spread of COVID-19, Fauci said, while testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Fauci and other health experts were on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to offer their thoughts on reopening schools in the fall and other businesses that have not yet opened.
The committee hearing took place as the U.S. has begun to see higher numbers of the disease being recorded, including on Saturday when a record-breaking 45,300 new cases were identified. Since the coronavirus pandemic reached the country, over 2.6 million cases have been documented, with more than 126,360 recorded deaths from the disease as of Tuesday afternoon.
With those numbers from this past weekend in mind, Fauci explained that it’s possible the daily totals could go even higher, since the U.S. is not showing any signs of stopping the spread of COVID-19.
“We are now having 40-plus-thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around, and so I am very concerned,” Fauci said during his testimony.
The infectious diseases expert also offered some advice that some in the country — including President Trump — have openly thwarted: wear a mask to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
“We have got to get the message out that we are all in this together,” Fauci warned. “If you are outside your home and can’t socially distant, you should wear a mask at all times.”
At the same committee hearing, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield encouraged the same moves.
“It is critical that we all take the personal responsibility to slow the transmission of COVID and embrace the universal use of face coverings. I ask those that are listening to spread the word,” Redfield said.
Yet for some, masks and facial coverings have become a political statement, with those having conservative leanings being less likely to wear them, according to a recent Pew Research poll on the subject.
The most prominent individual to refuse to wear a mask, of course, is the president. Trump has infamously chosen not to don a facial covering, in spite of recommendations from his own health experts telling every American to do so.
Some of Trump’s refusal to wear a mask might stem from reasons of vanity.
“I just don’t want to be doing — I don’t know, somehow sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful Resolute Desk, the great Resolute Desk, I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens. I don’t know, somehow, I don’t see it for myself,” Trump said in April.
Other reasons why Trump won’t wear a mask appear to be political. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this month, the president said that he believes some in the U.S. wear masks to spite him, or to show disapproval of his presidency.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.