The Atlantic: How much worse do you expect the pandemic to get? How do we get back to a better place?
Fauci: By pushing a reset button, I don't mean everybody locking down again. We've got to call a time-out and say, "If you're going to open, we've got to get everybody on the same team." I'm not going to name any states—that's not helpful—but some states did, in fact, prematurely jump over some checkpoints.
Even though we are in the middle of a setback now—you can't deny that; look at the numbers, you're dealing with 40,000 to 60,000 infections in a day—it doesn't mean we're going to be defeated. But states that are in trouble right now, if those states pause and say, "Okay, we're going to do it right, everyone wear a mask, bars closed, no congregating in crowds, keep your distance, protect the vulnerable"—if we do that for a few weeks in a row, I'll guarantee you those numbers will come down.
