Dr. Anthony Fauci and Fox Newsā Laura Ingraham do not appear to agree on the differences between the coronavirus, HIV (human immunodeficiency viruses) and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).
Ingraham opened the exchange claiming ālife did go onā despite not having a vaccine for SARS or HIV and asked Fauci why the United States is adamant about having one for the coronavirus before the nation returns to normal.
Fauci first explained how HIV/AIDS and SARS are different.
āWe donāt have a vaccine for HIV/AIDS but we have spectacularly effective treatment,ā Fauci said. āPeople who invariably would have died years ago right now are leading essentially normal lives. SARS is a different story. SARS disappeared.ā
Fauci confirmed a vaccine was created for SARS, it went through the different phases and was proven to be safe, but then the virus disappeared.
He was not on board with Ingrahamās idea the coronavirus is similar to those viruses.
āI think itās a little bit misleading maybe to compare what weāre going through now with HIV or SARS, theyāre really different,ā Fauci said.
Watch Fauciās comments below:
Ingraham went on to suggest the coronavirus could disappear just as SARS did.
āAnything could, Laura, but I have to tell you, the degree of efficiency of transmissibility of this is really unprecedented in anything that Iāve seen,ā Fauci said. āItās an extraordinarily efficient virus in transmitting from one person to another. Those kind of viruses donāt just disappear.ā
The coronavirus continues to spread across the United States. As of Friday morning, there are more than 671,000 confirmed cases and at least 33,000 deaths.
President Donald Trump released new guidelines on Thursday evening for states to follow to reopen their economies, as IJR previously reported.
There is no confirmed timeline listed in the new guidelines of when restrictions on states are lifted but Trump did list criteria for states to begin rolling back social distancing restrictions.