Fauci: Americans Are

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The country's top infectious disease expert went on all five major Sunday morning talk shows to warn Americans about the continuing danger of the coronavirus pandemic and encourage everyone to take social distancing seriously. Americans as a whole "should be prepared that they're going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing" in order to stop the spread of covid-19, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

TODD: Should we expect more closures? Should more Americans be prepared to be hunkering down at their house?

FAUCI: I think Americans should be prepared that they are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing. pic.twitter.com/q9BogxpjqZ

- JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) March 15, 2020

Fauci did not rule out supporting a national lockdown as several European countries have done while he criticized those who continued to go out over the weekend despite the warnings that everyone should stay home as much as possible. "I would like to see a dramatic diminution of the personal interaction that we see in restaurants and in bars. Whatever it takes to do that, that's what I'd like to see," Fauci replied when CNN's Brianna Keilar whether he would "like to see a national lockdown." He also warned that there seems to be a mistaken belief among younger people that covid-19 can't affect them, but that is mistaken. Younger people "are not immune or safe from getting seriously ill" and they can also be "a vector or a carrier."

"I would like to see a dramatic diminution of the personal interaction we see in restaurants and in bars," Dr. Fauci says about the coronavirus. Young people are not immune: "There are going to be people who are young who are going to wind up getting seriously ill" #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/iF5J2gccta

- CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 15, 2020

Speaking on NBC, Fauci said that he thinks authorities "should really be overly aggressive and get criticized for over-reacting." Now that the new virus is already spreading in the country, the goal needs to be to "blunt" the curve of cases to prevent the hospital system from becoming overwhelmed. "Our job is to make sure it doesn't do the maximum peak and actually blunts," he said. "Within that blunt there will be many new infections. We want to make sure we don't get to that really bad peak in Americans."

NEW: @jonkarl: "Are you confident that the federal government is doing everything that needs to be done right now to contain this?"

"Right now, Jon, yes. Absolutely," Dr. Anthony Fauci says on federal response to coronavirus threat. https://t.co/YJ2h02tqtA pic.twitter.com/uaByintRuB

- This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 15, 2020

Americans also shouldn't expect this new normal to end sometime in the near future. "It's going to be a matter of several weeks to a few months, for sure," Fauci said when ABC's Jonathan Karl asked him, "When will life get back to normal?" He also said that at this point in time most people should take as many precautions as they can. "The golden rule that I say is that, when you think you are doing too much, you are probably doing enough or not enough," he said.

NEW: "It's going to be a matter of several weeks to a few months for sure," Dr. Anthony Fauci tells @jonkarl when asked when life will get "back to normal" amid coronavirus threat. https://t.co/ECB1HZkgNi pic.twitter.com/z95VqZiN7j

- ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 15, 2020

But even as he urged further precautions, Fauci said he doesn't think the United States should implement any sort of domestic travel restrictions in the "immediate future," saying it is not an issue that is being given serious consideration for now. "I mean, they've been discussed, but not seriously discussed," he said. "I don't see that right now or in the immediate future. But remember, we are very open-minded about whatever it takes to preserve the health of the American public."

Will hospitals become overcrowded due to #coronavirus?

"We're doing everything we can to not allow that worse case scenario to happen," @NIAIDNews Dr. Anthony Fauci says. pic.twitter.com/aDmY9u8x52

- Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 15, 2020