Fauci says hard-hit states should be 'pausing' the reopening process

Fauci says hard-hit states should be 'pausing' the reopening process Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said Thursday that hard-hit states should not be moving forward with reopening, but stopped short of calling for full shutdowns. Peter Sullivan TheHill

Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said Thursday that hard-hit states should not be moving forward with reopening, but stopped short of calling for full shutdowns.

"I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process, looking at what did not work well and try to mitigate that," Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, told The Hill's Steve Clemons. "I don't think we need to go back to an extreme of shutting down."

Fauci struck a different note than he did a day earlier in an interview with The Wall Street Journal when he said states should consider shutdowns.

"I think any state that is having a serious problem, that state should seriously look at shutting down," he said Wednesday. "It's not for me to say because each state is different."