Dr. Fauci: U.S. 'Not Necessarily' on Same Track as Italy

The United States is "not necessarily" on the same trajectory as Italy when it comes to the spread of the deadly coronavirus, but matters still remain unpredictable, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said Sunday. 

"We don't know why they are suffering so terribly," Fauci said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "There is a possibility, and many of us believe that early on, they did not shut out as well the input of infections that originated in China and came to different parts of the world."

Very early, President Donald Trump enacted a travel restriction against China, and then against Europe, said Fauci, but once a virus spreads, it happens "exponentially" and "you can never keep up with this tsunami."

However, he warned that there is "no doubt" the United States will be hit.

"New York is terribly suffering," said Fauci. "But the kinds of mitigation issues that are going on right now, the things that we're seeing in this country, this physical separation, at the same time as we're preventing an influx of cases coming in, I think that's gonna go a long way to preventing us from becoming an Italy."

Meanwhile, Fauci said that New York, California, and Washington state, where the virus is hitting particularly hard, are a "very high priority" for getting resources to fight the disease, and he did not anticipate that equipment will not be received. 

Fauci also said there is "fundamentally" no difference between the president's comments on a malaria drug efficacy with coronavirus and what Fauci said the next day. The drug may not work. 

"I was taking a purely medical, scientific standpoint and the president was trying to bring hope to the people," said Fauci. "I think there's this issue of trying to separate the two of us. There isn't fundamentally a difference there. He's coming from it from a layperson standpoint."

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