The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

‘Let’s stop this nonsense,’ Fauci says of federal coronavirus response as he comes under fire

Alabama has seen nearly 60,000 cases of covid-19 and more than 1,100 deaths as of July 15. With numbers rising, the governor issued a statewide mask mandate. (Video: Robert Ray/The Washington Post)
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July 15, 2020 at 11:25 p.m. EDT

Sidelined by the White House and harshly criticized in an extraordinary op-ed from one of President Trump’s top advisers, Anthony S. Fauci — the nation’s top infectious-disease expert — said in an interview published Wednesday that the country needs to focus on a surging virus “rather than these games people are playing.”

“We’ve got to almost reset this and say, ‘Okay, let’s stop this nonsense,' ” he said after being asked by the Atlantic to state “the truth about the federal response to the pandemic” in the United States. “We’ve got to figure out, How can we get our control over this now, and, looking forward, how can we make sure that next month, we don’t have another example of California, Texas, Florida, and Arizona?”   
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Coronavirus: What you need to know

Where do things stand? See the latest covid numbers in the U.S. and across the world. In the U.S., pandemic trends have shifted and now White people are more likely to die from covid than Black people.

The state of public health: Conservative and libertarian forces have defanged much of the nation’s public health system through legislation and litigation as the world staggers into the fourth year of covid.

Grief and the pandemic: A Washington Post reporter covered the coronavirus — and then endured the death of her mother from covid-19. She offers a window into grief and resilience.

Would we shut down again? What will the United States do the next time a deadly virus comes knocking on the door?

Vaccines: The CDC recommends that everyone age 5 and older get an updated covid booster shot. New federal data shows adults who received the updated shots cut their risk of being hospitalized with covid-19 by 50 percent. Here’s guidance on when you should get the omicron booster and how vaccine efficacy could be affected by your prior infections.

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