Dr. Anthony Fauci said that holding political conventions in August would be unsafe without a substantial decline in coronavirus cases.
It would be safe “if we have a really significant diminution in the number of new cases and hospitalizations and we’re at a level where it is really very low, then … you may … have some sort of a capability of gathering,” Fauci told CNN’s Jim Sciutto.
Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and one of the lead members of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force.
Fauci told me holding political conventions in August only safe “…if we have a really significant diminution in the number of new cases and hospitalizations and we’re at a level where it is really very low, then…you may…have some sort of a capability of gathering.” 3/
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) May 27, 2020
The number of new coronavirus cases reported daily in the United States has been declining. It reached a zenith on April 24 when 36,137 new cases were reported. On Tuesday, 16,700 new cases were reported. Still, cases have been trending upward in 17 states in the last week.
Fauci’s remarks come two days after President Trump threatened to pull the GOP convention from the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, if Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper doesn’t guarantee that Republicans could fully occupy the arena. Florida and Georgia, Republican-led states, have offered to take the conventions instead.
Democrats have already postponed their convention from July to August in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Top Democrats have hinted that their convention may be canceled.