Fauci to warn senators that reopening country too quickly risks needless deaths: report

Dr. Anthony Fauci will warn the Senate on Tuesday that the U.S. risks “needless suffering and death” if the economy reopens too soon, the New York Times reported Monday night. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the face of the U.S. public-health response to the coronavirus pandemic, will testify before a Senate committee Tuesday morning via video conference. Fauci emailed a Times reporter Monday night with what he planned to say, namely “the danger of trying to open the country prematurely.” Fauci warned in the email that if states reopen without following the White House’s guidelines — which many states are already doing — they will run the risk of more outbreaks around the country. “This will not only result in needless suffering and death, but would actually set us back on our quest to return to normal,” he told the Times.