Dr. Fauci Says You Can Catch COVID This Way After All
In recent weeks there has been a lot of misinformation and misinterpretation surrounding COVID-19. Luckily, Dr. Anthony Fauci is here to clear up the confusion. On Tuesday the nation's leading infectious disease expert and key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, spoke with Good Morning America's Amy Robach, discussing the latest hot topics surrounding COVID-19. Read on, and to ensure your health and the health of others, don't miss these Sure Signs You've Already Had Coronavirus.
Dr. Fauci Says President Trump Trusts His Advice
Fauci maintains that he has a good relationship with President Donald Trump. When asked if the Republican leader trusts him and his advice, he responded: "I think he does. I was at the White House yesterday at a task force meeting with the vice president and everything that we discussed what you just spoke about, regarding children, regarding everything that's going on that gets to him and he understands that," he said. "So, I think it's a distraction to pit me against the president. We are all on the same team."
Dr. Fauci Says Asymptomatic People Can Spread the Virus, Despite What You've Heard About Testing Guidelines Changing
When the CDC released their new recommendations and guidelines for testing, many interpreted it to mean that all asymptomatic people do not need to be tested because they aren't contagious. According to Dr. Fauci, this isn't the case. "There's no doubt that there's asymptomatic infection and that asymptomatic people can transmit and that you can and should test asymptomatic people," he said. "What the guideline was trying to do was to try to make the point that not everyone who wants to be tested should be tested — only if you need to be tested."
Dr. Fauci Spoke About Whether or Not Schools Should Open
The process of safely reopening schools is tricky, and should be looked at on a case-by-case basis, explains Dr. Fauci. "When you are looking at opening schools, the country is a big country, there are parts of the country that we call green zones where you can without real impunity reopen schools if you are really careful like wearing masks and things. But there are parts of the country like yellow zones and certainly in the red zones when there is a lot of viral activity in the community you have to take a careful look at if and how you are going to open the schools. You may be able to do it with certain precautions, physically separating, alternating of classes, hybrid approaches, but there are some areas where there is such a high degree of infection that you really want to be careful if you do that," Dr. Fauci said.
"I might say though, importantly, the best way to get schools open is to decrease the rate and level of infection in your community. So if you are in a red zone, get yourself into a yellow or green zone and we wouldn't be having this conversation about whether or not to open the schools. So as a community we need to pull together as communities instead of trying to determine should you go into school in this particular zone. Get out of the red zone, get your community, your city, your state into a yellow or a green zone and that would be much safer to get children to school."
Dr. Fauci Wants a 'Safe and Effective' Vaccine That's Proven to Work
Dr. Fauci does not endorse a vaccine being approved for emergency use before phase 3 trials are complete. "I've always said and I think virtually all of my colleagues agree, that's much different than what Dr. Hahn said if you talk about what he's actually meaning. You don't want a vaccine to be readily available to the American public unless it's been shown to be safe and effective, safe and effective," he explained.
Dr. Fauci Cleared Up the Misinterpretation of Fatalities
The CDC recently released a statistic that 9,000 people who died of COVID-19 had no preexisting conditions. But don't be fooled — the actual death toll is over 180,000, reminds Dr. Fauci. "The point that the CDC was trying to make was that a certain percentage of them had nothing else, just COVID. That does not mean that someone who has hypertension, diabetes who dies of COVID didn't die of COVID-19, but they did," he said. "So the numbers you've been hearing, the 180,000+ are real deaths from COVID-19. Let there not be any confusion about that, it's not 9,000 deaths from COVID-19, it's 180,000+ deaths." As for yourself: to stay safe and healthy during the pandemic, don't miss these 25 Ways You Can Still Catch COVID.
