Story at a glance
- Fauci explained on Monday that Birx was referring to the community spread occurring across the country.
- Birx warned that the U.S. is entering a “new phase” of the pandemic as asymptomatic carriers make it much more difficult to identify, isolate and contact trace in communities.
- President Trump took to Twitter suggesting Birx’s comments were an effort to appeal to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D), who has recently criticized Birx’s handling of the pandemic.
Top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci on Monday defended White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx’s assessment that the coronavirus in the U.S. is in a “new phase” — comments that President Trump later lashed out at Birx over.
During a virtual news conference with Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) Monday, Fauci explained Birx was referring to the “inherent community spread” that is occurring in some states by those who are asymptomatic.
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“The reason why [Birx is] saying it’s a new phase is because throughout the country, when you have community spread, it’s much more difficult to get your arms around that and contain,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during the news briefing.
“Nursing home outbreaks, meatpacking plant outbreaks, prison outbreaks — it’s unfortunate that they occur, but you know exactly what you’re dealing with, and you can go in there and try and suppress the infection and contain it,” Fauci said. “Whereas when you have community spread, it’s insidious.”
On Sunday, Birx told CNN the coronavirus in the U.S. is extraordinarily widespread.
“What we’re seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It’s into the rural as equal the urban areas” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Early Monday, President Trump took to Twitter suggesting Birx’s comments were an effort to appeal to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D), who has recently criticized Birx’s handling of the pandemic.
“So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics,” Trump tweeted. “In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!”
During a Monday evening news conference, Trump appeared to temper his criticism of Birx as he defended the White House’s handling of the coronavirus, saying she’s a person he has a lot of respect for.
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