White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks with Dr. Anthony Fauci during a news briefing in Washington on Jan. 21. New coronavirus variants that have emerged in California and New York are “worrisome” reminders that it’s too soon to roll back pandemic restrictions, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases.
Fauci’s comments Sunday on several national news programs echoed those of the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. At a briefing Friday, she expressed concern over the two variants , which “appear to spread more easily and are contributing to a large fraction of current infections in those areas, adding urgency to the situation.”
data suggest the drop in new daily coronavirus cases in the U.S. has stalled, with cases hovering around 70,000 a day, Fauci said Sunday. He warned against moves like Massachusetts’ decision to lift capacity restrictions on indoor dining. “It is really risky to say, ‘It’s over; we’re on the way out,’” Fauci said on CNN’s “ State of the Union .” He noted that in past periods of the pandemic, “when we started to pull back prematurely, we saw the rebound. We definitely […]