The fight over when US states should reopen intensified on Tuesday, as one of the most senior members of Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force warned that ending lockdowns early could lead to “suffering and death” through uncontrollable outbreaks.
Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a Senate committee hearing that reopening too soon could set back US attempts to control the disease. His warning came after the US president urged state governors to grant people their “freedom” and several states began to relax controls on movement.
Dr Fauci told the Senate health committee hearing: “If states or cities or regions in their attempt — understandably, to get back to some form of normality — disregard the checkpoints that we put in our guidelines about when it is safe to proceed in pulling back on mitigation, I feel if that occurs, you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control.”