White House Doctor Anthony Fauci Blasts Anti-Lockdown Protesters

Somehow, staying at home to starve coronavirus has become an inherently political issue.

Nowadays, you seem to be forced to into choosing which side of the reopening debate you are on:  Reopen now and deal with the virus as it happens, or stay home until we can guarantee safety.

What’s most peculiar about how disparate these two sides have become is that the White House seems to be working somewhere in the middle of these varying opinions.  They’ve laid out a phased reopening plan that alarmed the virus alarmists, but wasn’t moving fast enough for the folks who were protesting the lockdowns on streets from coast to coast over the weekend.

During an appearance on Good Morning America, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the White House coronavirus task force had a stern message for the folks in the latter camp.

“I think the message is that, clearly, this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics, from the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus,” Fauci said. “But unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery, economically, is not going to happen.”

Earlier in the interview, Fauci said that there are currently enough coronavirus tests for most states to reach phase one of the White House’s reopening protocol — despite protests from some governors to the contrary. Nonetheless, Fauci warned against a haphazard reopening.

“If you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re going to set yourself back,” he said. “So as painful as it is to go by the careful guidelines of gradually phasing into a reopening, it’s going to backfire [if you reopen prematurely]. That’s the problem.”

The White House’s plan to reopen the economy would rely heavily on the decision-making of state governors who are able to more acutely attend to their constituents than the bulky federal government can.