Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday said state leaders should take a closer look at the carve-outs being written into stay-at-home orders during the escalating coronavirus pandemic.
“I can’t make any official proclamations here, but I can say really seriously consider: Are those exemptions appropriate when you think about what’s going on?” Dr. Fauci said on NBC’s “Today” show. “And I urge the people at the leadership at the state level to really take a close look at those kinds of decisions.”
Florida, one of the latest states to approve a stay-at-home order, is among those exempting religious services. A Florida pastor was recently arrested for holding services in defiance of local emergency orders.
Arizona, meanwhile, is allowing businesses such as salons and barbershops to stay open.
Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said “you have a point there” when host Savannah Guthrie raised the prospect of a national lockdown versus a piecemeal effort among the states.
“But it’s one of those things in our country — there still is that issue of central government versus the ability and the right of a state to make their own decision,” he said.
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Wednesday had said federal guidance to avoid crowds and stay at home if possible is effectively serving as a national stay-at-home order.
“If you look at what’s in those 30-day recommendations of the guidelines, that’s essentially what it is,” Dr. Fauci said on Thursday. “I know it’s difficult, but we’re having a lot of suffering, a lot of death. This is inconvenient from an economic and a personal standpoint, but we just have to do it.”
“That is our major weapon against this virus right now,” he said. “We don’t have a vaccine that’s deployable — this is the only thing we have, and we can get through it if everybody really leans forward and pushes on this.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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