Fauci, Redfield Warn Nation Is At Critical Moment In Pandemic; Officials Say More, Not Less, Testing Underway

AP: Fauci: Next Few Weeks Critical To Tamping Down Virus Spikes
The next few weeks are critical to tamping down a disturbing coronavirus surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress on Tuesday — issuing a plea for people to avoid crowds and wear masks just hours before mask-shunning President Donald Trump was set to address a crowd of his young supporters in one hot spot. Fauci and other top health officials also said they have not been asked to slow down virus testing, in contrast to Trump’s claim last weekend that he had ordered fewer tests be performed because they were uncovering too many infections. Trump said earlier Tuesday that he wasn’t kidding when he made that remark. (Neergaard and Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/24)

The Hill: Fauci Gives Congress COVID-19 Warning 
Anthony Fauci, the administration’s top infectious disease doctor, told a House panel on Tuesday that rising U.S. cases of COVID-19 are “disturbing” as new signs emerged of the United States falling further behind other countries in containing the novel coronavirus. The coronavirus is surging in more than half the country, and states like Florida, Texas and Arizona are setting records of new cases almost daily. (Weixel, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Fauci, Redfield Testify On Coronavirus In Congressional Hearing 
The health officials also warned of a difficult fall and winter because the U.S. health-care system will probably battle two highly contagious, respiratory viruses then: the novel coronavirus and the seasonal flu. They also said it was inevitable the country would see more cases as states continued to reopen and emphasized the importance of getting the outbreak under control to allow local health officials to isolate confirmed cases and conduct contact tracing to prevent cases from spiraling out of control. (Wagner, Sonmez, Abutaleb, Sun and McGinley, 6/23)

ABC News: Fauci, Other Health Advisers At Odds With President Trump On Whether To Slow Testing 
The nation's top health experts on Tuesday directly contradicted President Donald Trump's suggestion that coronavirus testing should slow down, telling lawmakers that more tests -- not fewer -- are needed to curb the rate of COVID-19 infections. In a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the senior administration officials also warned that America remains gripped by the crisis and that the situation could grow worse by fall. (Flaherty and Khan, 6/23)

Politico: Fauci Says Trump Hasn't Ordered Slowdown Of Coronavirus Testing
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the administration continues to focus on scaling up testing capacity and that, to his knowledge, none of the White House coronavirus task force members had been told to do otherwise. "It's the opposite,” Fauci said in response to a question referencing Trump's remarks. “We’re going to be doing more testing, not less." (Ehley, 6/23)

Stat: Top U.S. Officials Say They Weren't Ordered To ‘Slow Down’ Covid-19 Testing
Four key government health care officials said Tuesday that despite recent remarks from President Trump, they were never ordered to “slow down” diagnostic testing for Covid-19. Their testimony at a congressional hearing came just three days after the president, at a campaign rally, told supporters that he had ordered a deceleration of Covid-19 testing. During a rally in Tulsa, Okla., Trump misleadingly escalated his long-standing claim that the high U.S. case count is simply a result of thorough testing. (Facher, 6/23)

NBC News: Breaking With Trump, Fauci Says U.S. Will Do 'More Testing, Not Less'
Fauci's comments come in stark contrast to Trump's remarks Saturday, when he told a crowd of his supporters at his first campaign rally in months that he wanted to slow down testing for the coronavirus. (Shabad and Smith, 6/23)

Politico: Fauci Says White House Told NIH To Cancel Funding For Bat Virus Study
The White House directed the National Institutes of Health to cancel funding for a project studying how coronaviruses spread from bats to people, the government's top infectious disease expert said Tuesday. “Why was it canceled? It was canceled because the NIH was told to cancel it," said Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in response to a question during a House Energy & Commerce Hearing. "I don’t know the reason, but we were told to cancel it.” (Lim and Ehley, 6/23)

CIDRAP: Fauci, Redfield Testify To Congress On COVID-19 Surge, Vaccines
Fauci said the increase in cases is due to community spread of the virus—and not just increased testing. "That's something that I'm really quite concerned about, and you know that this has been something that's been in the press over the past couple of days," Fauci said. "Over the past couple of days, we were going down from 30,000 to 25 [thousand] to 20 [thousand]. And now we sort of stayed about flat, and now we're going up. A couple of days ago, there were 30,000 new infections. That's very troublesome to me." (Soucheray, 6/23)

PBS NewsHour: Fauci Tells Congress More Testing Needed To Combat ‘Disturbing Surge’ In Virus
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before Congress Tuesday, referring to the spread of COVID-19 in a dozen U.S. states as “a disturbing surge.” Fauci and other top health experts reiterated the need for more testing, even as President Trump claimed that “testing is a double-edged sword” in the pandemic fight. (Desjardins, 6/23)

CNN: Trump Ignores Viral Surge As Fauci Warns Of Disturbing Trend
President Donald Trump's top health advisers say that the coronavirus pandemic has driven America to its knees amid a disturbing surge in cases. But Trump is ignoring the new danger, instead using the worst domestic crisis in decades as a racist punchline. (Collinson, 6/24)