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Count Dr. Anthony Fauci among those who thinks America needs a nationwide stay-at-home order.
“I don’t understand why that’s not happening.”
That’s what Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday night during a CNN town hall on the coronavirus pandemic.
“The tension between federally mandated versus states rights to do what they want is something I don’t want to get into,” Fauci said of a federal order to stay home. “But if you look at what is going on in this country, I do not understand why we are not doing that. We really should be.”
So far, almost 40 states have restricted movement and business to slow the spread of coronavirus, though the severity of guidelines vary state by state.
President Donald Trump has resisted calls for nationwide restrictions. “It’s awfully tough to say close it down,” Trump said Wednesday of states that have not seen as many COVID-19 cases. “We have to have a little bit of flexibility.”
Many public health experts disagree.
That includes Bill Gates, whose Gates Foundation has pledged $100 million to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
In a Washington Post op-ed earlier this week, Gates called the hodge-podge of state shutdowns “a recipe for disaster. Because people can travel freely across state lines, so can the virus.” Gates called for a nationwide shutdown until new coronavirus cases start to go down, which could take at least 10 weeks.
