Fauci praises Mass.; state reports 290 new coronavirus cases, 17 new deaths

[TexasTowelie]

The nation’s top infectious disease specialist praised Massachusetts’ response to the coronavirus pandemic this week, as key indicators for the state continued to tick downward while dozens of other states see infections climbing.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also pointed to tighter lockdowns in Europe leading infection rates there to drop while US numbers continue to climb, as he appeared Thursday afternoon in a video interview with Harvard Business Review’s Joshua Macht.

Asked about the virus’s slowing spread in Massachusetts and some other states hit hard early in the pandemic, Fauci cautioned that the numbers would inevitably move upward as the state continues to reopen businesses.

“You are going to see infections as we try to open up and go from one phase to another,” Fauci said. “By the way, Massachusetts has done a really, really good job. They have. New York City, even though they got hit really badly, did a really good job of getting it down.”

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/03/marijuana/mass-reports-290-new-coronavirus-cases-17-new-deaths/

[sheshe2]

1. K&R

[Indykatie]

2. Guess Fauci Had to Include a GOP Governor in His Praise

Michigan has done a good job too.

[Chemisse]

4. Gov. Baker HAS done a very good job.

He has been cautious all the way through. Mass. was one of the hardest-hit states starting right off at the outset. Baker made all the right decisions, closing schools, businesses and government offices in mid-March, and announcing a stay-home advisory for nonessential workers. It's been a long haul getting it under control and it's still trickling along. Massachusetts engaged in a regional approach with New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and like those states is now going through phased reopenings with certain restrictions.

Baker deserves a lot of credit. I am especially impressed with the resourceful way he enlisted the New England Patriots to use their aircraft to fly to China and pick up an order of face masks for medical workers after the Trump administration seized Massachusett's incoming PPE order from the docks.

[BigmanPigman]

3. I still am pissed off at Fauci.

If he told us to wear some sort of cloth covering and to social distance in early March (after we already saw the benefits of countries who were already practicing this behavior) we wouldn't be here right now. He could have saved PPE for hospitals and still warned us. Instead he lied for tRump and enabled him far too long and was inconsistent with the public.

I am still pissed off at Comey too, by the way. I don't forgive and forget.