Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
COVID-19 Is Fauci's Worst Nightmare--And 'It Isn't Over Yet'
The New York Times: Fauci Warns That The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Far From Over
In a wide-ranging talk to biotech executives, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci delivered a grim assessment of the devastation wrought around the world by the coronavirus. Covid-19 is the disease that Dr. Fauci always said would be his “worst nightmare” — a new, highly contagious respiratory infection that causes a significant amount of illness and death. “In a period of four months, it has devastated the whole world,” Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Tuesday during a conference held by BIO, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. “And it isn’t over yet.” (Grady, 6/9)
Politico: Fauci Calls Coronavirus His 'Worst Nightmare' As Infectious Disease Expert
Fauci explained that he’d long feared the emergence of a brand new, respiratory-borne viral illness with both a significant degree of transmissibility and mortality. “We’ve had outbreaks that have had one or two or three of those three or four characteristics but never all four,” he said. Coronavirus, he noted, checked all of those boxes, and had “indeed turned out to be my worst nightmare.” (Oprysko, 6/9)
The Hill: Fauci Says Coronavirus His 'Worst Nightmare' And Far From Over
Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the virus surprised him with "how rapidly it just took over the planet." "This took about a month to go around the world," Fauci said. "When is it going to end? We're still at the beginning of it." Fauci said other outbreaks such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), HIV and Ebola "had a degree of containment and finiteness to them from the very beginning," he said. (Weixel, 6/9)
CNN: Dr. Anthony Fauci's 'Worst Nightmare' Is Covid-19
It was "unexpected how rapidly," it would spread, he said. "It just took over the planet," Fauci added, "And it isn't over yet." Fauci also said there is still a lot to learn about the long-term negative effects of Covid-19 infection on patients. "The thing that we don't yet fully appreciate is what happens when you get infected and you get serious disease and you recover? What are the long-term durable negative effects of that infection?" Fauci said. (Christensen and Crespo, 6/10)
Bloomberg: Covid-19 Pandemic Is Far From Over, Anthony Fauci Warns
Fauci, the head of the infectious disease agency since 1984, has emerged early on as one of the leading voices in the battle by President Donald Trump’s administration against the pandemic. His statements have sometime run counter to the president’s on topics such as when and whether restrictions should be eased, and he and the White House virus task force have recently been sidelined with fewer appearances before the media. The U.S. has more coronavirus cases than any other country, with about 2 million, and leads the world in pandemic deaths with more than 112,000. Meanwhile, as states such as New Jersey lift stay-at-home orders, Trump has cheered the revival of U.S. employment numbers and stock-market gains.(Lauerman and Griffin, 6/10)
