Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, advised Americans not to attend President Donald Trump’s scheduled rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma this weekend, citing coronavirus concerns.
“I’m in a high-risk category. Personally, I would not. Of course not,” Fauci, who is 79, said.
The rally remains a point of contention for many critics, particularly the Tulsa Health Department, which has urged the president to cancel the event altogether, citing fears that it would set off a spike in coronavirus infections in the state.
“I think it’s an honor for Tulsa to have a sitting president want to come and visit our community, but not during a pandemic,” Dr. Bruce Dart, the Tulsa City-County Health Department’s director, told Tulsa World over the weekend. “I’m concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event, and I’m also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well.”
“COVID is here in Tulsa, it is transmitting very efficiently,” Dart continued. “I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn’t as large a concern as it is today.”
The rally also goes against the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which notes that “Large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and attendees travel from outside the local area” pose the highest risk for transmitting infections.
Asked whether the United States had entered the second wave of the pandemic, Fauci said the country is still very much in the first wave.
“We are seeing infections to a greater degree than they had previously seen in certain states, including states in the southwest and in the south,” he said. “I don’t like to talk about a second wave right now, because we haven’t gotten out of our first wave.”
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