Fauci, Birx Cite ‘Crowds’ and ‘Protests’ in Surge of COVID-19 Cases

By Fred Lucas of The Daily Signa. Excerpt:

"Two other prominent members of the task force made a direct or indirect reference to the nationwide protests of recent weeks, demonstrations largely made up of younger people. 

Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the task force, said she was glad more young people generally are getting tested.

“I want to end by thanking the millennials who have come forward,” Birx said, adding:

I know during the protests, we asked a lot of them to [come] forward and get testing. And we see those testing rates really improving in the under-40 age group. That is going to be important to continue to accelerate testing in the under-40 age group … because that is the age group most likely to have asymptomatic spread, and be spreading the virus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made a personalized case to young people, urging them to remember that although they are less vulnerable they can spread the disease.

Fauci said he remembers “a stage in my life” when he thought: “Well, I’m invulnerable, so I’m going to take a risk.”

“I think what we are missing in this is something that we’ve never faced before,” Fauci said. “A risk for you is not just isolated to you. If you get infected, you are part, innocently or inadvertently, of propagating the dynamic process of a pandemic because the chances are if you get infected, that you are going to infect someone else.”

Fauci referred to young people gathered in large crowds depicted in the media, but didn’t specify whether he was talking about mass protests or big parties.

“The overwhelming majority of people getting infected now are young people, likely the people you will see in the clips and in the paper out in crowds, enjoying themselves,” Fauci said, adding:

Understandably, no blame there. But the thing you really need to realize is that when you do that, you are part of a process. When you get infected, you will infect someone else, who clearly will infect someone else. Ultimately, you will infect someone who is vulnerable. That may be somebody’s grandfather, grandmother, uncle who is in chemotherapy and who is on radiation and chemotherapy, or a child who has leukemia.
I want to bring this out without making it seem anyone is at fault. You have an individual responsibility to yourself, but you have a societal responsibility. "