Though he has not advocated a national lockdown, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious disease expert, said he does not understand why some states have been reluctant to issue stay-at-home orders.
Speaking with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday night town hall, Fauci said that the minority of governors who not yet issued a stay-at-home order should implement one soon. Currently, more than 30 states and the District of Columbia have participated in this.
“I don’t understand why that’s not happening,” Fauci said. “You know, the tension between federally mandated versus states’ rights to do what they want is something I don’t want to get into. But if you look at what’s going on in this country, I just don’t understand why we’re not doing that.”
As noted by CNN, has resisted implementing a national shutdown in the name federalism in order to give states flexibility to handle the problem as they best see fit.
“You have to look — you have to give a little flexibility,” Trump said during Wednesday’s press conference. “If you have a state in the Midwest, or if Alaska, for example, doesn’t have a problem, it’s awfully tough to say, ‘close it down.’ We have to have a little bit of flexibility.”
Alaska and several key mid-western states, including Ohio and Vice President Mike Pence’s home state of Indiana, have implemented their own lockdown.
Fauci later stressed that relaxing social distancing too early could lead to more deaths, which could further prolong the problem.
“If you back off, and you don’t mitigate, there is a possibility that number (of deaths) will go up,” said Fauci. “And that is the worst possible thing in the world you want to see. And that’s the reason why I am so adamant about when we say we have got to follow those guidelines, you really got to take it seriously.”
Other governors have called upon states to implement their own lockdowns, asserting that the virus is unavoidable.
“Our message is this: ‘What are you waiting for?'” California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNN Wednesday. “What more evidence do you need? If you think it’s not going to happen to you, there are many proof points all across this country; for that matter, around the rest of the world.”
Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also called for a “national strategy instead of a patchwork of policies” when combatting the virus.
“That’s why I think it’s important that we governors are leading and showing the way and being aggressive,” Whitmer said on CNN. “I’m grateful that I have great, you know, colleagues here in the Midwest in particular. We’ve been pretty aggressive as a geography, and I think that’s important.”
It should be noted that Gov. Whitmer said this after providing zero proof that the federal government was not helping her state with coronavirus supplies. She also reversed course after instructing medical professionals in her state not to prescribe the drug hydroxychloroquine, which the Trump administration has been pushing to combat COVID-19.
“Prescribing any kind of prescription must also be associated with medical documentation showing proof of the medical necessity and medical condition for which the patient is being treated. Again, these are drugs that have not been proven scientifically or medically to treat COVID-19,” said a letter from the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.