Dr. Fauci Says U.S. Isn't Doing Well In The Coronavirus Fight: ‘We’re Just Not’

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said Thursday that the country was not doing well as cases of the coronavirus continue to surge nationwide, and he placed some of the blame on a divisive culture that has politicized efforts to fight the pandemic.

Fauci made the comments on FiveThirtyEight’s “Podcast-19” as a surge in cases has spread across many states, some of which are setting daily records for new infections and warning of rapidly filling hospital beds. At the same time, calls for Americans to wear face masks and avoid large crowds have remained highly controversial in some places, setting off heated confrontations even as some leaders have conceded they may have reopened their states too soon.

“You have to be having blindfolders on and covering your ears to think that we don’t live in a very divisive society now, from a political standpoint,” Fauci said. “I mean, it’s just unfortunate, but it is what it is. … So I think you’d have to make the assumption that if there wasn’t such divisiveness, that we would have a more coordinated approach.”

Fauci has regularly pushed back against President Donald Trump’s statements minimizing the effects of the pandemic. On Thursday, the doctor told The Hill that states seeing a resurgence in cases should pause their reopening plans.

“Let me say there are parts of the United States … that are doing really well, that you’ve been through something really bad and you have things under control,” Fauci said on the podcast. “But as a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don’t think you can say we’re doing great. I mean, we’re just not.”

Trump, however, has regularly claimed that the U.S. has more cases only because of increased testing (which is not true) and said this week that...

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