Dr. Anthony Fauci said shutting down the country again to help control the coronavirus pandemic is not necessary if people take certain protective measures.
During an interview with Politico's "Pulse Check" podcast, Fauci — the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force — was asked about what the country needs to do as COVID-19 continues to spread.
"There seems to be a misperception that either you shut down completely and damage a lot of things, mental health, the economy, all kinds of things, or let it rip and do whatever you want," Fauci said.
"There's a stepwise fashion that you can open up the economy successfully."
Fauci added, "You don't have to lock down again, but everybody has got to be on board for doing these five or six fundamental public health measures."
Those measures include wearing masks, practicing social distancing, avoiding crowds and other large gatherings, and washing hands, among other things.
"When you have a weak link, then the whole system is unsuccessful," Fauci said.
After much of the U.S. economy was shut down earlier this year, states began to reopen and people started gathering again — and a surge of new cases followed. As of Thursday morning, nearly 5 million Americans have gotten sick and more than 161,000 have died.
Wednesday saw 55,148 new confirmed cases and 1,311 deaths, according to WorldoMeter.
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