Dr. Anthony Fauci of the White House Coronavirus Task Force said Tuesday that he would not personally attend any of President Trump’s upcoming rallies occurring amid the pandemic.
“Personally, I would not. Of course not,” Dr. Fauci said about attending one of the president’s reelection campaign rallies, The Daily Beast reported.
Dr. Fauci, 75, noted that he is in a “high-risk category” for the novel coronavirus, which health experts have determined to most dangerous for people 65 and older.
The infectious disease expert added about the rallies that “outside is better than inside, “no crowd is better than crowd” and “crowd is better than big crowd,” the report said.
Dr. Fauci made the remarks as Mr. Trump’s campaign prepares to resume holding rallies more than three months since halting them due to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic.
COVID-19, the contagious respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, can be transmitted from person to person via direct or indirect contact, making crowded events like campaign rallies literal breeding grounds for the incurable, potentially deadly illness.
Indeed, Mr. Trump’s campaign is requiring that individuals attending Saturday’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma — his first since early March — “voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19” and promise not to sue. The event is currently slated to take place at an indoor arena that holds around 20,000 people, and the Trump campaign has said it has received several times that many requests for tickets.
More than 2.1 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the U.S. since the outbreak began late last year in Wuhan, China.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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