Thank you very much, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President.
[Rosemary Barton] Dr. Anthony Fauci has been a public face in the fight against COVID-19 in the U.S.
Pushing science over politics at the White House and elsewhere.
I have never made myself out to be the end-all and only voice in this.
[Rosemary] He's a key member of president Trump's coronavirus task force
and unafraid to contradict him.
Fuelling speculation around his firing.
In May, Dr. Fauci was possibly exposed to the virus.
He quarantined as a precaution and seems to have kept a lower profile ever since.
This as the U.S. moves forward with its reopening despite his earlier warnings
to move slowly.
I asked Dr. Fauci about that and how the U.S. has handled the crisis.
Dr. Fauci, thank you so much for making the time.
Good to be with you.
[Rosemary] I want to talk a little bit about the reopening process in the United States.
Because over the past week or so we have seen some increases in cases
in places like Texas, California, Oregon.
Does that tell you that the reopening is happening too quickly?
What are your concerns around that?
Whenever you start to reopen or get to some degree of what we call normality
there will be increase in cases.
The interesting and important thing is to identify, isolate and contact trace
so that you can blunt those little blips
and prevent them from becoming true rebounds of infection.
That's what we have to see.
Because you're right we are seeing the appearance of additional infections.
Particularly in the areas that are opening.
If we handle them well, we could be OK.
If not, then we really have a significant problem.
[Rosemary] The U.S. has had a mortality rate that's about 60 percent higher than Canada's.
It's had twice the number of cases per capita.
Why do you think that there has been that vast difference?
You know that's a good question.
We don't really know the difference.
The reason for that difference.
It could possibly be I mean --
If you look at what what dictates morbidity and mortality
we have a particular vulnerability among individuals who do have these co-morbidities
of hypertension, of obesity, of a variety of other underlying conditions.
We also have vulnerability among our African-American population.
It is entirely conceivable that the disparity in the relative proportions demographically
of African-Americans and other minorities would make our mortality rate higher.
I don't know that as a fact
but I think that's something we should at least consider.
The border between Canada and the U.S. as you know was shut down to non-essential travel
towards the end of March.
Travellers will no longer be permitted to cross the border for recreation and tourism.
We don't want people coming into contact
because that's the way we're going to win this war.
That is so important.
[Rosemary] Can I ask you what you think should be the criteria for reopening the border
between our two countries?
What would you like to see in place on both sides in order to make that reopening safe?
[Fauci] I am not an expert on closing and opening borders.
What you would like to see under any circumstances
would be to see a significant diminution consistently
in the number of cases, hospitalizations and obviously deaths.
But I think what you mentioned about some states now
having an increase in the number of cases makes one pause and be a little bit concerned.
But I don't want to extrapolate that to making any statements about border closing
[Rosemary] That's fair.
What is the message to the world about how the United States is doing
or how concerned should the world be given how this unfolded there?
[Fauci] Well I'm not so sure the world should be concerned.
The United States has gone through a very very difficult situation.
I mean you know the numbers.
Millions of cases and we have now a 112,000 deaths.
That is the most of any country.
That is something that is obviously very serious that we're trying to deal with.
I think that's more of a concern for us
than it is for a concern for the rest of the world.
In Canada there is a real deference from politicians to public health officials and scienctists
in the way they are you know asked to answer a lot of questions around the pandemic
How does that kind of deference help the population trust information?
[Fauci] Well when you hear from health officials
whose job is the safety and health of the nation
then you have confidence that what you're hearing is something that is worth following.
Which is the reason why I'm on television here talking to you.
That I do the same thing with outlets in the United States.
To try and get the accurate information to the general public.
[Rosemary] Has that been challenging for you given the administration?
Actually not because I have been able to freely go out and talk about evidence-based facts
and I've had no interference in my doing that.
[Rosemary] Let me ask you a little bit about the WHO, if you don't mind.
Obviously there have been lots of questions in in all countries in this country as well.
But the president in your country has said that he intends for the U.S. to leave the WHO.
Redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs.
Are you worried about the consequences of that decision?
Well, I mean I've been dealing with the WHO now for four decades.
The WHO is an imperfect organization.
It certainly has made some missteps.
But it has also done a lot of good.
The world needs a WHO.
I would hope that we would continue to benefit from what the WHO can do
at the same time that they continue to improve themselves.
But if the U.S. is withdrawing and and has suspended all funding.
As the biggest funder are you concerned about the future of the WHO?
As someone that has leaned on it and and been found it helpful in the past?
No, like I said and I'll repeat.
The world does need a WHO, as imperfect as it is.
But we would hope that as it goes forward it would continue to improve
and try to essentially correct some of the missteps of the past.
Can we talk about vaccines a little bit?
Because there are more than a hundred or so vaccines that are in development now
as as well as various treatments.
We have heard maybe by the end of the year.
What is your assessment on how close we are to that right now?
[Fauci] We will be going into a phase three trial for efficacy which is a large trial
of about 30,000 individuals.
Which if we're successful and I have to underline if
because whenever you're dealing with the development of a vaccine
nothing is ever guaranteed.
But we're cautiously optimistic that at the end of the year, the beginning of 2021
we could have a vaccine that could be ready to deploy to the public.
At this stage do you think a second wave is inevitable.
We know that most pandemics do have one.
But is it inevitable?
Will we be able to contain it?
I don't think it's inevitable.
I think we will as we get into the fall and winter see additional cases.
If we handle them properly and efficiently
I believe it is not inevitable that we will have a second wave as it were.
But it could happen if we don't handle the cases that will inevitably appear .
What is not inevitable is that it will turn into a second wave.
You do sound more hopeful than I would have expected though.
Well, I'm cautiously optimistic about the interventions that we're going to be able to implement.
I believe that if we get a vaccine and we implement the public health measures
to the best of our ability that will get over this.
This is a terrible ordeal we're going through
but it will end and we will get over it.
Dr. Fauci, thank you so much for making the time for this country.
We do appreciate it, sir.
My pleasure, it's good to be with you.
Thank you for having me.