白宫冠状病毒特别工作组的顶级传染病专家安东尼·福西博士说，如果社会距离措施和其他缓解策略能够更快实施，美国“显然”可以拯救生命。
这句话是在一个星期天说的采访美国有线电视新闻网国情咨文在此期间，福西被问及一份报告纽约时报这概括了唐纳德·特朗普总统政府中的高级卫生官员在二月份想要如何实施缓解措施。国家过敏和传染病研究所的主任福西解释说，有时健康建议会被采纳，有时则不会。
“建议往往被采纳。有时候不是。但事实就是如此。我们现在所处的位置，”他说。
这位高级卫生官员试图转移对政府的批评，认为事后诸葛亮总能让正确的选择变得更加清晰。
“我的意思是，很明显，你可以合乎逻辑地说，如果你有一个过程，这是正在进行的，你开始减缓，你可以挽救生命，”他说。“显然，没有人会否认这一点，但这种决定是复杂的。但你是对的，很明显，如果我们从一开始就关闭一切，情况可能会有点不同。”
稍后，福西说，他希望美国的生活能在11月的大选中恢复正常，让选民安全地去投票。但他警告说，“随着我们进入明年秋天和初冬，总有可能看到反弹。”
随着冠状病毒引起的冠状病毒19型(COVID-19)确诊病例和死亡人数在全国范围内迅速增长，许多人批评特朗普及其政府对大流行反应迟缓。尽管高级官员和顾问在备忘录中警告说死亡人数可能会飙升，经济后果可能会使国家损失数万亿美元，但总统还是一再淡化病毒的威胁。政府也迟迟没有推出检测，使得官员难以追踪病毒的传播。
4月6日，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在华盛顿特区白宫召开冠状病毒特别工作组会议后，国家过敏和传染病研究所所长安东尼·福西博士聆听了他对记者的讲话
“我们必须记住这场危机教会了我们什么:政府未能计划、准备、诚实评估和传达对国家的威胁导致了灾难性的结果，”民主党总统候选人乔·拜登说在一封信中写道论坛版纽约时报星期天。“我们不能重复那些错误。”
根据约翰·霍普金斯大学的追踪报告，截至周日下午早些时候，美国已有超过53万例冠状病毒确诊病例。其中，超过2万人死亡，超过3.2万人已经康复。
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI SAYS U.S. 'OBVIOUSLY' COULD HAVE SAVED LIVES BY STARTING CORONAVIRUS MITIGATION EARLIER
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said that the U.S. "obviously" could have saved lives if social distancing measures and other mitigation strategies had been implemented sooner.
The remark came during a Sunday interview with CNN's State of the Union, during which Fauci was asked about a report by The New York Times that outlined how top health officials in the administration of President Donald Trump wanted to implement mitigation efforts back in February. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, responded by explaining that sometimes health recommendations are followed and sometimes they aren't.
"Often the recommendation is taken. Sometimes it's not. But it is what it is. We are where we are right now," he said.
The top health official tried to deflect criticism of the administration, suggesting that hindsight always makes the correct choice more clear.
"I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process, that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier you could have saved lives," he said. "Obviously no one is going to deny that, but what goes into those kind of decisions is complicated. But you're right, obviously, if we had, right from the very beginning, shut everything down it may have been a little bit different."
Later in the segment, Fauci said he hoped that life in the U.S. would be back to normal enough by the general election in November for voters to safely go to the polls. But he cautioned that "there is always the possibility, as we get into next fall and the beginning of early winter, that we could see a rebound."
As the number of confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, has grown rapidly nationwide, many have criticized Trump and his administration's slow response to the pandemic. The president repeatedly downplayed the threat from the virus, even as top officials and advisers were warning in memos that the death toll could soar and the economic fallout could cost the country trillions of dollars. The government has also been slow to roll out testing, making it difficult for officials to track the spread of the virus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens to President Donald Trump speak to reporters following a meeting of his coronavirus task force at the White House on April 6 in Washington, D.C.
"We have to remember what this crisis has taught us: The administration's failure to plan, to prepare, to honestly assess and communicate the threat to the nation led to catastrophic results," presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times on Sunday. "We cannot repeat those mistakes."
As of early Sunday afternoon, there were more than 530,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S., according to a tracker by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 20,000 people have died, while over 32,000 have already recovered.
