Big Lines From Fauci's Testimony

Anthony Fauci was testifying remotely Tuesday before a Senate panel on the coronavirus pandemic, and he reiterated his concern that states run a huge risk if they reopen too quickly. Some highlights of his testimony, via Politico, the AP, CNN, and the Washington Post:

• Consequences: "If some areas, cities, states or what-have-you jump over those various checkpoints and prematurely open up without having the capability of being able to respond effectively and efficiently, my concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks," said Fauci. "The consequences could be really serious. ... There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control."
• Consequences, II: "There is no doubt even under the best of circumstances when you pull back on mitigation, you will see some cases appear."
• Children: "We don't know everything about this virus, and we really better be very careful, particularly when it comes to children, because the more and more we learn, we're seeing things about what this virus can do that we didn't see from the studies in China or in Europe," Fauci said. "I think we should be careful, if we're not cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects."
• School: "The idea of having treatments available or a vaccine to facilitate the reentry of students into the fall term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far."
• Not going away: Asked about the notion of the virus going away on its own without a vaccine, which President Trump put forth again on Friday, Fauci said: "That is just not going to happen." Elaborating, he added: "It's a highly transmissible virus. It is likely there will be virus somewhere on this planet that will likely get back to us."

(More Anthony Fauci stories.)