Fauci counters Trump, says US is doing more COVID-19 testing [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• US’ top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci testified on Tuesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, saying that the federal government is widening its mass testing efforts, contrary to President Donald Trump’s recent suggestion.
• Fauci’s comments were opposite to Trump’s remarks as the president said that he wanted to “slow down the testing.”
• White House officials defended Trump’s statement and said that it is a “joke,” but Trump tweeted on Tuesday, reiterating that he wants to minimize coronavirus testing efforts.

The Trump administration is broadening its testing measures, Dr. Anthony Fauci told the Congress on Tuesday, contrary to what President Donald Trump had said recently.

During the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, Fauci testified his thoughts about Trump’s latest remarks to “slow down” the coronavirus testing.

“It’s the opposite, we’re going to be doing more testing, not less,” he said.

To his knowledge, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert said: “None of us have ever been told to slow down on testing — that just is a fact.”

Fauci’s remarks were directly opposite to what Trump said on Saturday during his campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that he wanted to slow down the testing.

“Testing is a double-edged sword,” said Trump, who added that the country has already conducted 25 million tests. 

“When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases, so I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.’”

Fauci acknowledged New York’s efforts for being able to decrease the number of infections and for carefully reopening, but he cautioned that other areas of the country are now experiencing “a disturbing surge of infections.”

“The way you address that — and I’ve said this over and over again — is you have to have the manpower, the system, the testing to identify, isolate and contact trace in an effective way so that when you see those increases, you can understand where they’re coming from. And you can do something about them,” he said.

White House aides defended Trump’s comments, saying it was a “joke.” However, the President tweeted on Tuesday, repeating his remarks about testing.

“Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country, and ever expanding. With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!” he said.

Trump also tweeted that the administration has done a “great job” on handling the pandemic and has “saved millions of US lives.” He also added that Fauci “is with us in all ways.”

According to Fauci, the pandemic threat is now a “mixed bag” as the US has been hard hit, having more than 120,000 deaths and 2.5 million infections.

Source: AOL.com