The chief scientific officer in the fight against the coronavirus in the United States, Anthony Fauci, has described the virus as his “worst nightmare” and has warned that the country “is still” at the “beginning” of the pandemic, in a tone more pessimistic than the one usually used by the American president, Donald Trump.
The head of the National Institute of Allergology and Infectious Diseases of the United States has assured during an interview at the Organization of Biotechnology Innovation that the virus that emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan meets all the criteria of the worst scenarios, such as that it is new, easily transmitted , affects the airways and has a relatively high capacity to cause serious harm to the sick.
Fauci has acknowledged that he himself was surprised by “how quickly it spread across the planet” in “about a month”. “When is it going to end? We are still at the beginning,” he said, also acknowledging that little is known about this new disease, especially its long-term effects, according to The Hill portal.
The epidemiologist has been one of the most visible faces of the Trump Administration’s response in the early stages of the outbreak, but in recent weeks, already from the background, he has repeatedly distanced himself from the President’s criteria, disagreeing on topics ranging from economic reopening to the use of masks.
The United States is the country most affected by the pandemic worldwide and is already close to 2 million cases. More than 112,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19 in the United States, according to the balance prepared by Johns Hopkins University.
