The health officials returned to Capitol Hill at a fraught moment in the nation's pandemic response, with coronavirus cases rising in about half the states and political polarisation competing for attention with public health recommendations.
"We've been hit badly," Fauci said. He said he was "really quite concerned" about rising community spread in some states, including Arizona, which Trump was visiting today to view construction of a border wall and for a rally at a megachurch.
"The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surges," he said.
Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was testifying along with Centres for Disease Control director Dr Robert Redfield, Federal Drug Administration chief Dr Stephen Hahn and the head of the US Public Health Service, Admiral Brett Giroir.
Since Fauci's last appearance at a high-profile hearing more than a month ago, the US has begun emerging from weeks of stay-at-home orders and business shutdowns.
But it's being done in an uneven way, with some states far less cautious than others. A trio of states with Republican governors who are bullish on reopening — Arizona, Florida and Texas — are among those seeing worrying increases in cases.
Last week, Vice-President Mike Pence wrote in an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal saying the Administration's efforts have strengthened the nation's ability to counter the virus and should be "a cause for celebration."
Then at his weekend rally in Tulsa, Trump called for slowing testing. White House officials later tried to walk back Trump's comment, suggesting it wasn't meant to be taken literally.
Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee, said during today's hearing that Trump's testing comment at the rally "was an extremely reckless action, and unfortunately it continues the President's pattern of ignoring the advice of his own public health experts."
Trump played down those comments today, saying under his administration the US is doing more testing than any other country.
Fauci has recently warned that the US is still in the first wave of the pandemic and has continued to urge the American public to practice social distancing. Fauci continues to recognise widespread testing as critical for catching clusters of Covid-19 cases before they turn into full outbreaks in a given community.
- AP
