Anthony Fauci says US in ‘whole lot of trouble’ if mass gatherings continue... as thousands attend Trump rally

There was no social distancing at the campaign event in Sanford, Florida
Getty Images

The top infectious disease expert in the US has warned the country faced a "whole lot of trouble" if face masks were not encouraged and mass gatherings continued.

Anthony Fauci said on Monday the US was in a “bad place” with the baseline of infections new reaching up to 50,000 daily ahead of the winter season.

His remarks came as president Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail, holding an rally in Florida that was attended by thousands of people. There was no social distancing and mask-wearing was spotty among those who gathered to see Mr Trump’s return to the state.

“We’ve got to turn this around,” Dr Fauci said.

Top doctor Anthony Fauci, flanked by US President Donald Trump
AFP via Getty Images

"We have a baseline of infections now that varies between 40 and 50,000 per day.

“That's a bad place to be when you're going into the cooler weather of the fall and the colder weather of the winter," he told CNBC.

Dr Fauci has been director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984 and a key member of the White House coronavirus task force.

"If we do five fundamental things: Universal wearing of masks, maintaining physical distance, avoiding congregate settings or crowds ... doing things more outdoors, as opposed to indoors and washing your hands frequently, those simple things ... can certainly turn around the spikes that we see and can prevent new spikes from occurring."

Asked what the consequences would be of not following such steps, Dr Fauci replied: "I think we're facing a whole lot of trouble."

In an earlier interview with CNN, he said President Donald Trump's campaign team should withdraw an advertisement that draws on a statement Dr Fauci made that he says is being used out of context.

He called the ad, which was released last week, "unfortunate and really disappointing."

The ad discusses Mr Trump's effort to recover from Covid-19, as well as his administration's work to address the coronavirus pandemic.

The 30-second spot uses public remarks from Dr Fauci in a way that suggests he was praising the president.

The remarks came from a March interview where Dr Fauci discussed the broader effort to fight the new coronavirus, including by the White House task force.

Dr Fauci has said that he has never publicly endorsed a political candidate for public office.

Mr Trump’s campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh defended the ad on Sunday, saying the words from Dr Fauci "are accurate, and directly from Dr. Fauci’s mouth."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in