Could we have a normal summer despite coronavirus? Fauci says ‘it can be in the cards’
As the number of confirmed cases and deaths from coronavirus continue to soar in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci provided some hope for a normal summer.
Asked Thursday on “CBS This Morning” if Americans can have a summer filled with trips to the beach, baseball games, weddings and reunions, Fauci said, “It can be in the cards.”
But the infectious disease expert on the White House coronavirus task force urged the population to proceed with caution before planning their summer getaways.
“When we do that, when we pull back and try to open up the country, as we often use that terminology, we have to be prepared that when the infections start to rear their heads again that we have it in place a very aggressive and effective way to identify, isolate, contract trace and make sure we don’t have those spikes we have now,” Fauci said.
There are more than 430,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S., which is more than the next three countries — Spain, Italy and Germany — have combined, according to Johns Hopkins University. As of April 9, the U.S. was nearing 15,000 deaths from the virus.
Fauci’s comments come as Major League Baseball has begun talks of having its 2020 season start with all teams quarantined in Arizona.
A return to normalcy this summer would be welcomed by the air travel industry. Fewer than 100,000 people flew Tuesday, a record low according to Transportation Security Administration data.
“The bottom line of it all is, that what we see looking forward, it is very likely that we will progress towards the steps towards normalization as we get to the end of this 30 days,” Fauci said on CBS.
“And I think that’s going to be a good time to look and see how quickly can we make that move to try and normalize. But hopefully, and hopefully, by the time we get to the summer we will have taken many steps in that direction.”
His optimistic comments come a day after he spoke on Fox News about a decrease in death projections in the country.
“Although one of the original models projected 100- to 200,000 deaths, as we’re getting more data and seeing the positive effect of mitigation, those numbers are going to be downgraded,” Fauci said on Fox News. “I don’t know exactly what the numbers are going to be, but right now it looks like it’s going to be less than the original projection.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 11:07 AM with the headline "Could we have a normal summer despite coronavirus? Fauci says ‘it can be in the cards’."