Dr. Anthony Fauci does not believe that the coronavirus is disappearing right now, as multiple states across the United States continue to combat increases in the virus.
As ABC’s David Muir mentioned the president’s recent messaging where he claimed the virus is “disappearing,” the host asked Fauci during an interview late Monday, “Are you comfortable with those words ‘this is disappearing?'”
Fauci responded in saying there are things people can do to help mitigate the virus and get it “under control,” and added that he does believe it is “achievable” to get to the point where the COVID-19 outbreak is “quite controlled.”
When pressed again if the virus is “disappearing at the moment,” the nation’s top infectious disease expert answered, “No, it’s not.”
“I mean, all you’ve got to do is look at the data, David,” Fauci, White House Coronavirus Task Force member, added. “The virus is telling us what it can and will do if we don’t confront it properly.”
There are seven U.S. states and territories that are seeing an increase in coronavirus cases, while 23 states are seeing decreases and the others are mostly the same in cases, according to The New York Times’ statistics.
Watch Fauci’s interview below:
ONE-ON-ONE: @DavidMuir interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci about the coronavirus fight as children start returning to classrooms, with Fauci making it clear that there should be universal mask-wearing in America’s schools to help keep kids and teachers safe. https://t.co/wI5Xub0Atb pic.twitter.com/iuekxgVO0c
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) August 11, 2020
Fauci’s remarks about the virus come shortly after the president continued to press for schools to reopen this fall, as many are wary of it due to the virus.
While suggesting schools “should open” during a Fox News interview last week, Trump said, “This thing is going away. It will go away like things go away and my view is that schools should be open.”
This was not the president’s first time suggesting the virus will go away, as he previously said it “will disappear” in early July as several states saw significant spikes in cases.
“We’re headed back in a very strong fashion with a ‘V,’” Trump said at the time during a Fox Business interview. “And I think we’re going to be very good with the coronavirus. I think that at some point that’s going to sort of just disappear, I hope.”
Back in March, CNN’s Jim Acosta confronted Trump about his claims that the virus will disappear. However, Trump at the time, responded, “It will go away and we’re going to have a great victory.”
There are more than 5.2 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S., with over 166,000 deaths due to the virus and more than 2.7 million reported recoveries, as of Tuesday morning. There has been an 18% decrease in the number of cases during the past week, in comparison to the two weeks prior, according to the Times.