Second wave of coronavirus ‘inevitable,’ Dr. Fauci says

Just as many Americans started to breathe a sigh of relief, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, reportedly said Wednesday that a second wave of the coronavirus is “inevitable” later this year. Dr. Fauci is the top U.S. epidemiologist helping to lead the fight against COVID-19. As of writing, more than 58,000 Americans have died from the virus, with over one million infected with the deadly virus.

Dr. Fauci said the United States could be in for a bad fall and winter if it’s not prepared for a second wave of the virus. “If by that time we have put into place all of the countermeasures that you need to address this, we should do reasonably well,” Fauci told CNN in an interview. “If we don’t do that successfully, we could be in for a bad fall and a bad winter.”

The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said that if states ease restrictions too quickly, the country could see a surge that would “get us right back in the same boat that we were a few weeks ago,” adding that widespread testing is needed to avoid such a path.

“The truth is that we’re going in the right direction,” he said. “But we need to continue to partner in a very active collaborative way with the states, we need to help them the same way they need to do the execution.”