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Fauci Back on Capitol Hill as Virus Surge Drives New Fears

Associated Press

   WASHINGTON - Dr. Anthony Fauci returns to Capitol Hill on Friday to
   testify before a special House panel investigating the coronavirus
   pandemic. His testimony comes at a time when early progress on
   combating the virus seems to have been lost and uncertainty clouds the
   nation's path forward.

   The government's top infectious disease expert is testifying alongside
   Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and
   Prevention, and Admiral Brett Giroir, a Health and Human Services
   official and physician serving as the "testing czar."

   The panel, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, is
   divided about how to reopen schools and businesses, mirroring divisions
   among Americans.

   A rebound of cases across the South and West has dashed hopes for a
   quick return to normal life. Problems with the availability and
   timeliness of testing continue to be reported. And the race for a
   vaccine, though progressing rapidly, has yet to deliver a breakthrough.

   Fauci's public message in recent days has been that Americans can't
   afford a devil-may-care attitude toward COVID-19, and individuals need
   to double down on basic measures such as wearing masks in public,
   keeping their distance from others, and avoiding crowds and indoor
   spaces such as bars. That's echoed by Redfield and Giroir, though they
   are far less prominent.

   Fauci's dogged persistence has drawn the ire of some of President
   Donald Trump's supporters and prompted a new round of calls for his
   firing. But the veteran of battles against AIDS and Ebola has stuck to
   his message, while carefully avoiding open confrontations with the
   Trump White House.

   In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Fauci said
   he was "disturbed" by the flat-out opposition in parts of the country
   to wearing masks as a public health protective measure.

   "There are certain fundamentals," he said, "the staples of what you
   need to do ... one is universal wearing of masks."

   Public health experts say masks help prevent an infected person who has
   yet to develop symptoms from passing the virus to others. For the mask
   wearer, there's also some evidence that they can offer a degree of
   protection from an infected person nearby.

   Fauci said in his AP interview that he's concerned because the U.S. has
   not followed the track of Asian and European nations also hit hard by
   the coronavirus.

   Other countries that shut down their economies knocked back
   uncontrolled spread and settled into a pattern of relatively few new
   cases, although they continued to experience local outbreaks.

   The U.S. also knocked back the initial spread, but never got the
   background level of new cases quite as low. And the resurgence of
   COVID-19 in the Sunbelt in recent weeks has driven the number of new
   daily cases back up into the 60,000-70,000 range. It coincided with
   economic reopening and a return to social gatherings, particularly
   among younger adults. Growing numbers of emergency room visits,
   hospitalizations and deaths have followed as grim consequences.

   Nearly 4.5 million Americans have been sickened since the start of the
   pandemic, and more than 150,000 have died.

   Fauci said there's evidence the surge across the South may be peaking,
   but upticks in the Midwest are now a concern.

   "They've really got to jump all over that because if they don't then
   you might see the surge we saw in some of the Southern states," he told
   AP.

   Though Fauci gets push-back from White House officials, other medical
   experts in the administration are on the same page when it comes to the
   public health message.

   Giroir, the testing czar, told reporters Thursday: "I think it's very
   important to make sure that we all spread the public health message
   that we can control all the outbreaks occurring right now."

   He said controlling the outbreaks will require people to wear masks,
   avoid crowded indoor spaces and wash their hands frequently.