Covid-19's efficient transmission and variability make virus a 'perfect storm', Fauci says

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on June 30 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP

The variability and "striking" transmissibility of Covid-19 makes the virus the "perfect storm," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"Not to be hyperbolic about it — it really is the perfect storm and [an] infectious disease and public health person's worst nightmare. It's a spectacularly transmissible virus. The efficiency with which this transmits is really striking," he said at an event hosted by The Hill.

Fauci explained that the range of people it affects — from those with no symptoms to those who end up in intensive care or die — make the virus "a very complex situation to really get control of."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the nation will see the Covid-19 pandemic through.

"I'm gonna see it through and the country's gonna see it through," he said Thursday during an interview with The Hill.

Fauci said that despite political divisiveness, he hopes the nation will realize "we are all in this together."

The NIAID director called on young people to take personal responsibility for preventing the spread of the virus, noting that this population can also get severely ill from the virus.

"You can't assume that you're in a vacuum, and it's only about you," Fauci told The Hill's Steve Clemons.

Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

The World Health Organization on Thursday released a new scientific report detailing how coronavirus can pass from one person to the next — including through the air during certain medical procedures.

The report also notes that there are still many unanswered questions around airborne transmission and how exactly the virus spreads.

The report comes just days after the publication of a letter Monday signed by 239 scientists that urged the agency to be more forthcoming about the likelihood that people can catch the virus from droplets floating in the air. 

Still, "current evidence suggests that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurs primarily between people through direct, indirect, or close contact with infected people through infected secretions such as saliva and respiratory secretions, or through their respiratory droplets, which are expelled when an infected person coughs, sneezes, talks or sings," the report said. "Respiratory droplets from infected individuals can also land on objects."

The report also said that "there have been reported outbreaks of COVID-19 reported in some closed settings, such as restaurants, nightclubs, places of worship or places of work where people may be shouting, talking, or singing. In these outbreaks, aerosol transmission, particularly in these indoor locations where there are crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces where infected persons spend long periods of time with others, cannot be ruled out. More studies are urgently needed to investigate such instances and assess their significance for transmission of COVID-19."

In general, according to WHO, airborne transmission refers to any time an infectious pathogen that causes illness disseminates in the air and remains infectious when suspended in the air over long distances and time.

Dr. Benedetta Allegranzi, WHO's technical lead for Infection Prevention and Control, said during a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday that the agency has discussed and collaborated with many of the scientists who signed the letter claiming WHO hasn't been forthright about airborne transmission. 

“We acknowledge that there is emerging evidence in this field, as in all other fields regarding the Covid-19 virus and pandemic, and therefore we believe that we have to be open to this evidence and understand its implications regarding the modes of transmission, and also regarding the precautions that need to be taken,” Allegranzi said.

For some time, "we have been talking about the possibility of airborne transmission and aerosol transmission, as one of the modes of transmission of Covid-19," Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for coronavirus response and head of its emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, previously said during a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.

Empty player seats are seen before the match against between Nashville SC and Atlanta United on February 29 in Nashville, Tennessee. Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Nashville SC has been forced to withdraw from Major League Soccer's on-going, season-opening tournament at Disney World's ESPN Wide World of Sports complex near Orlando, Florida, due to nine players testing positive for coronavirus, MLS announced Thursday in a statement.

Nashville SC's opening night match of the MLS is Back Tournament against the Chicago Fire FC was postponed Wednesday.

On Monday, MLS withdrew FC Dallas from the tourney after 10 players tested positive for the virus.

As a result of the withdrawal of Dallas and Nashville, MLS has reconfigured the groups into six groups, each consisting of four teams, as well as updated the qualification for the Knockout Stage.

There are currently 48 hospitals, in 26 counties, in Florida that have reached their capacity in their intensive care units and show zero ICU beds available, according to data released by the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). 

Another 52 hospitals show ICU bed availability of 10% or less, according to the AHCA data.

Health official on Thursday reported 8,935 new Covid-19 cases and at least 120 Covid-19-related deaths.

This brings the current total cases to more than 232,000, according the health department. There are now more than 4,000 Covid-19-related deaths in Florida.

Healthcare workers move a patient in the Covid-19 Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, on July 2 Mark Felix/AFP/Getty Images

The US is better prepared for a virus than it was 10 years ago, but needs "to take it a step even further," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Thursday.

Fauci was asked during a live event hosted by The Hill if the US should be more proactive when it comes to viruses that transmit from animals to humans by devoting more money and resources. 

Fauci said work done in previous years allowed the US to enter into the development of a vaccine for Covid-19 "at an absolute record speed."

But the nation's top infectious disease expert said more work still needs to be done.

Here's how he put it:

Yale and Harvard compete in an NCAA college football game at Fenway Park in Boston in 2018. Charles Krupa/AP

Ivy League sports, including football, will be postponed this fall due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Ivy League Council of Presidents Executive Director Robin Harris said that while there is “tremendous disappointment” among athletes and coaches at its colleges — which include Harvard, Princeton and Yale — there is also an acceptance about the threat of Covid-19.

The Ivy League is the first Division I conference to drop out of the upcoming college football season. 

Harris said that she expects other college conferences to follow suit in the future. 

Watch the interview:

President Donald Trump attends a roundtable discussion on the safe reopening of America's schools during the coronavirus pandemic, at the White House on July 7 in Washington, DC. Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

The Trump administration’s efforts to pressure the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into revising school reopening guidelines, and threats to withhold funding from school districts that do not reopen, could have deadly consequences, said American Public Health Association Executive Director Georges C. Benjamin.

In a statement released Thursday, Benjamin said the Trump administration’s actions “wrongly makes educators, students and parents political pawns and could have deadly consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The CDC has recommended that schools reopen cautiously, calling for physical distancing, physical barriers and proper cleaning. On “Good Morning America” Thursday, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said that the guidelines for reopening schools will not be revised, but that the agency will provide additional reference documents to help guide schools in their decisions.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in-person learning will take place in schools as planned unless there are case increases that require the state to move back into phase three.

The state is currently in phase four of reopening. Whitmer planned to move to phase five ahead of the Fourth of July but then chose not to due to the increased case numbers.

If the state returns to phase three based on case information, schools will be distance learning, Whitmer said. In phases four, five and six, in-person learning will take place. 

Districts are still writing their plans for reopenings, Whitmer said.