Dr. Anthony Fauci warned in testimony to a Senate committee Tuesday (May 12th) that cities and states could see more deaths and economic damage if they reopen from their coronavirus shutdowns too quickly, saying it could, quote, "turn back the clock." In testimony delivered by teleconference from his home, the nation's top infectious disease expert said, "There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control." The warning contrasted with President Trump's push for states to reopen. There were both Republican and Democratic members of the committee who spoke about the need for more testing, with Republican Chairman Lamar Alexander saying, "all roads back to work and back to school go through testing." But Republican Senator Rand Paul was more dismissive of Fauci's warnings, saying he wasn't the, quote, "end all" in knowledge about the virus. Fauci said he never made himself to be the, quote, "only voice in this."
Governor Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that New York is investigating about 100 cases of a mysterious inflammatory syndrome in children that's thought to be related to the coronavirus. Three young people in the state have died of the syndrome, which affects blood vessels and organs and has symptoms including persistent fever, rash, abdominal pain and vomiting. There have been children in other places in the U.S. and in Europe that have also been hospitalized with the syndrome. Dr. Juan Salazar, the physician-in-chief at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, said the rare syndrome often appears two to four weeks after a child has recovered from the coronavirus, often without ever being diagnosed with the virus.Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke about the syndrome during his Senate testimony yesterday about the coronavirus, saying, "I think we better be very careful that we are not cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects."
In other developments:
There were more than 82,300 deaths in the U.S. as of last night, according to the Johns Hopkins University count, which also tallied more than 1,369,000 confirmed cases.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has been hospitalized with the coronavirus. His wife, Olympic ice dancing champion Tatyana Navka, was also infected, and she told reporters they decided to go into the hospital so they wouldn't expose the rest of the family. She called her husband's condition "satisfactory." The Tass news agency quoted Peskov as saying he last saw Putin in person more than a month ago. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin revealed on April 30th that he'd tested positive.