Which will be fantastic, because well see the International Space station get back up just to be filled six people who are usually on board, but to seven, which means well be able to do even more science, which is the point of the International Space station, so well have a full crew again and lots of science been carried out. Now its time for a look at the weather with stav. Sunshine and showers, many southern areas staying dry altogether, but you will notice it is fresher than what it was yesterday. This evening and overnight most of the showers will die away and lengthy clear skies and light winds with a cooler air mass, a chi night to come with single figure values in the north, double figures further south. On monday, similar to the weekend with sunshine and showers. Showers had the across northern and eastern parts of england into the afternoon with the odd thundery one mixed in for as well. Top temperature is 2022 c, mid to for as well. Top temperature is 20 22 c, mid to high teens for north, so disappointing for early august. What across northern and Western Areas on tuesday and wednesday and windy but towards the end of the week it warms up and becomes very warm oi end of the week it warms up and becomes very warm or hot across the south and the east. Hello this is bbc news. The headlines a former conservative minister and current mp is arrested on suspicion of rape. The government insists that further coronavirus restrictions will be targeted locally. Theres a lot of speculation about what might happen in the future, but what were concentrating on is a targeted rather than a blanket approach. The australian state of victoria declares a state of disaster and imposes new lockdown measures after a surge in coronavirus infections. Heading home. The spacex capsule leaves the International Space station destination splash down off the coast of florida. Now on bbc news, the bbcs katty kay discusses the us response to coronavirus with us Infectious Disease chief Dr Anthony Fauci as cases continue to rise across the country. Hes the most famous doctor in america and, as head of Americas Institute of allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, Anthony Fauci has advised six different american president s on everything from ebola to aids. Over the last few decades, he has also seen his effigy burnt, heard the cries of protesters calling him a murderer, and had smoke bomb thrown at his office window. Since the beginning of the year, he has been in the thick of a new battle against coronavirus. For americans, he has become a trusted presence behind the podium at white house covid i9 briefings. But as a us struggles to contain the pandemic, six months after its first known case, tensions have been rising between dr fauci and the president. Dr fauci has criticised the president s response on a number of occasions, pushed back on the president s claims that the outbreak is improving, and attributing hasty state reopenings to the recent surges. The white house is targeting dr fauci by briefing reporters about his alleged mistakes. The move to undercut him comes as the us continues to see surges in covid i9. According to john hopkins university, there are well over 4 million cases confirmed, and more than 150,000 americans have died. Dr fauci, were now about five months into this pandemic in the United States. If id asked you back in april if this was the situation we would be in at the end ofjuly, is this about what you would have anticipated 7 i think the answer to that, katty, would have to be no. I would have hoped that once we had the initial surge under control as you recall we were particularly hard hit in the new york metropolitan area that we would have come down to a baseline that is really a low baseline, namely hundreds to, you know, a few hundred cases a day. But that is not what happened. We had the big surge, then it came down, but it plateaued at a level of about 20,000 cases per day for several weeks in a row into may and june. And then, injuly, with the attempts in some Southern States to open up again, namely open up the economy, we had surges of cases that is really quite unfortunate. And thats not what i would have predicted or liked to see, because we went from a baseline of about 20,000 cases a day up to 30, 40, 50, 60, and a couple of weeks ago we even hit 70 new cases a day. That has now gone down a bit to between 50,000 and 60,000. Thats not good. That is so high that you want to get a baseline thats much, much lower than that. So what went wrong . Did people just get impatient . I think there were a couple of things, not one single factor that you can see went wrong, but a couple of things. In the United States, right from the beginning, we shut down only by about 50 , even though it was a lot of inconvenience and a lot of very, very important negative effects on the economy and employment. But in reality, we did not shut down nearly as intensively as was shut down in other countries, including the european union. And then the other aspect of it is that, when we reopened, in the sense of, you know, we put out these guidelines for opening america again, and they were well thought out guidelines which had several checkpoints. The first checkpoint was a gateway. In other words, you had to have a diminution of cases before you could move to phase one, and then phase two, and then phase three. And each of the different phases became a little bit more flexible in opening things up. The problem is we did not have a uniform adherence to that. And what happened is that, some states, and im not going to name them, but some states actually skipped over some of the checkpoints. And in other states, even when the mayors and governors and others did it right, and give the right instructions, many of the members of society just disregarded them. Thats a sure fire invitation to get a problem. So as you watched that, you watched the states jumping the gun, you watched people behaving in an irresponsible way, you knew it was going to go wrong. You knew it would not end well. How frustrating was that, as you were trying to manage the pandemic . Well, it was quite frustrating, katty, because i was getting on the media and tv and radio virtually pleading, particularly with the young people, because the recent resurgences that weve seen, if you look at the average age of the people in that, its about a decade to a decade and a half younger than what we were seeing earlier on in the outbreak. And when i was looking at the film clips, you were seeing they werent wearing masks, they were congregating in bars. It became really quite frustrating because it became predictable what would happen if people did not adhere to the guidelines. So were in this position thats bad today. When you look forward, dr fauci, for the next four orfive months, how is it going to be . Well, i hope its going to be considerably different, katty. Do you have any reason for optimism . Well, i hope that the country i always say, and i still do, i have faith in the american citizens and the People Living in this country that they will appreciate what went wrong. As we get up and say, you know, thats the reason why im trying to do a lot of outreach, not onlyjust me but many of my Public Health colleagues who are out there talking to the populace, explaining to them that there are really four or five simple things that we know from experience can turn things around. And were trying to preach that as far and wide as we can. Universal wearing of masks. Physical distancing, six feet or more. Avoiding crowds. Avoiding bars and, if the states and the regions and the counties go along with it, closing bars if necessary. And physical hand hygiene, such as washing your hands. If you just do those five simple things, youre going to be able to turn a lot of this around, so hopefully were getting that message out. Im glad you still have faith in people because my faith is being tested at the moment. I just wonder what makes you think that youve been preaching this message, doctor, for the last few months and people are not doing it, and i wonder whether you actually would like to see much stricter enforcement of the rules. For example, here in washington, dc, there is now as of this week a 1,000 fine, potentially, if you dont wear a mask on the street. I go into the street, and people arent wearing masks. Do we actually need to get a lot tougher . Does there need to be stricter regulation, as there was during the lockdowns in europe . Yes, i have always been, katty, in favour of a balance, of being really strict in areas where you feel it is going to have an impact. Im sure that theres some of this in the uk, but, in the United States, theres this independent spirit, that people in general dont like to be told by higher authorities what to do. I dont think that thats an excuse for us not being a bit more strict with people, particularly with regard to masks. The problem with mandating is that sometimes that gets people pushed in the opposite direction, and youve got to figure out how youre going to enforce the mandating. So youre right, i do have faith in the american people. I hope that, when we strongly, strongly recommend that, that people will adhere to it and there will be Lessons Learned from what we have experienced over the past few weeks with the surging of cases in the Southern States. So let me ask you more about masks, and first of all a medical question. Can you clarify for me what the current thinking is on whether masks protect the wearer, as well as the people who are around the wearer . So if i wear a mask, does it protect me in any way, as well as stopping me spreading the virus if i have it . Yeah, there are more and more studies that are coming online that are indicating that its a bilateral type of protection. Originally, the data was showing that, if you wear a mask, it prevents you from infecting someone else if you are infected. We get that experience from hospitalised patients with other diseases, including this disease, to prevent the spread beyond the person. But since we know now that about 20 45 of the cases are asymptomatic, and that clearly people who are without symptoms are transmitting the infection to others, that the recommendation of universal wearing of masks is more geared towards having people who dont know that theyre infected from spreading the infection to others. However, theres also data accumulating when you do whats called meta analyses of studies that in fact there is a degree of protection. We dont know the exact percentage, but clearly theres a degree of protection, of protecting yourself from others, when you wear a mask. So i believe we know that there is now a benefit that goes both ways. And the benefit would be that im less likely to get it if im wearing a mask, or that the severity of the disease if i did get it would be diminished because i was wearing a mask. Do we know that yet . We dont know that yet. Theres a discussion about the size of the inoculum, and what impact that has on you getting infected and what the course of the infection is, but theres not enough data. The only data that we do know is that it protects from infection. We dont know whether its going to protect you from severity. We just dont have enough data to make a comment on that. When the president , as he did again yesterday, retweets things from people who say you dont need to wear a mask, how unhelpful is that from a medical perspective . Well, you know, i mean, this issue of tweeting and retweeting is something that ive never understood or gotten involved in, but i can tell you, youd have to say its not helpful if people get signals about not wearing masks, when were trying to get people to universally wear masks. So you would ask the president not to do that, if he listens to you . Well, katty, thats not the way it works. I think my feeling about what we should do with masks is very, very clearly understood by everyone, including those in the white house. What about hydroxychloroquine . And i ask you about this because its come back into the news because the president yesterday evening, in the white house, stood there and said that he believes in it and that it is safe, and again seemed to be touting this drug. Is the president right . Again, katty, its not productive or helpful for me to be making judges on right or wrong. But what i can say is what i have said all along that the overwhelming body of data from trials that were well run, randomised, placebo controlled trials, indicate that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in treating coronavirus disease or covid 19. The reason i ask you this, dr fauci, is because theres a lot of misinformation out there, and a lot of people dont trust what theyre hearing, either on the internet orfrom their leaders. You are one person in the United States who according to the last opinion poll has a 65 approval rating. People do trust you. And i wonder whether, just in terms of your ability to fight this pandemic, your effectiveness in fighting this pandemic, you do actually need to call out the president and the countrys leaders when they say things that are unhelpful and potentially set the country back . Because people trust you. And again, katty, i have to get back to see what happens is that that becomes the story as opposed to the message. So, if what you say is true, which i believe, i dont follow approval ratings, but if people are listening to me, i want them to hear loud and clear what im saying. We should have universal wearing of masks, and the Scientific Data to this point, this might change with other studies, but the Scientific Data up to this point indicate that the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of covid 19 is not effective. 0k. The president has also retweeted a tweet which said that you are misleading the american people. And just to put this on the record, have you misled the American Public during your advice during this pandemic . No, thats easy for me to answer. No, categorically, i have not misled the American Public during this outbreak. Youve said before, dr fauci, that during the course of your career you have spent decades preparing for this possibility of a pandemic like covid 19. When you were preparing for Something Like this, did you ever imagine that the politics would make it difficult to effectively manage this kind of situation . That the politics would get so mixed up on this . No, i did not. Obviously, when you are dealing with things that involve politicians, there is always a bit of political manoeuvring. Weve seen that in almost every outbreak, but it had been minor and didnt impact what we were doing with regard to response, but i think its no secret from looking at the situation in the United States that there is a considerable degree of political divisiveness to a level that everyone admits, you dont need me to make that declaration. I think anyone, even those who have more experience and more ability to observe and make judgment on that, that this is a very unusual situation of political divisiveness in this country. You mentioned young people. The who today is looking at young people in europe. Europe seems to have effectively managed the reopening process. When it started reopening a couple of months ago, things went well. We didnt see big spikes. Now you have a number of European Countries that are concerned. When you look at the situation in europe, are you worried that they could be sliding back again . Yes, as you said correctly, katty, at the beginning of their opening up, they really did very well. What i hope does not happen with our European Countries is that they get a little bit complacent and as they open up and see that things are doing well and they are able to contain any of these little blips that might turn into spikes that might turn into resurgences, i hope that they Pay Attention to the fact that the reason that theyve done well is that theyve done it correctly, and by doing it correctly, i hope they dont get complacent, essentially stepping over the line and taking additional risks. It has to do with what i was saying just a few minutes ago when we were talking about the situation in some places in the United States where people essentially skipped over the guidelines. In europe, they do have guidelines about safely reopening. Lets just hope that they follow them and not get into a situation where they trigger something that gets out of control again. Could you see new lockdowns, either here in the states or in European Countries . Could you see us going back to the situation globally that we were in in march and april if people do get too complacent . I really hope that we dont come to that. That would be very discouraging. There was enough stress and strain, not only psychologically on our populations, both in europe, the uk and here in the United States, but also the effect that it had on the economy and unemployment and other types of unintended consequences of lockdown. I hope we dont ever get to go to that. I was being asked about what the response would be too the resurgence that we were seeing in the Southern States. I commented that i hope we would not have to go to a complete lockdown and what we might do is at least have a pause in our progression to reopening and maybe even take a step back. In other words, if you are in phase two and you are getting into trouble, you might want to push back or pull back to phase one and then restart the process of careful, prudent, step by step reopening because no one wants to go back to a complete lockdown again. You look at germany, who did it so well, it was the poster child for europe, now you have the German Centre for Disease Control saying they are concerned about spikes in the country. Is it possible to combat this virus when you open up borders and allow people some freedom of movement . Because when we look at the countries doing it will at the moment that seem to have it under control, islands like new zealand or cyprus where the borders are controlled and people cant get in and so we have a bubble that they can protect, im just worried looking at whats happening in europe that its not possible to have it both ways, to open our borders and have this under control. Youre right, katty, this is not easy. Anyone who thinks this is easy is really not doing a lot of reality testing. It is a very difficult situation and weve got to do the best we can and we believe that, if we do this kind of opening and reopening prudently, then we have enough testing to go around to make sure that we can do the appropriate and adequate identification, isolation and contact tracing. That becomes very difficult. Weve learned from painful experience that, if you have a low level of cases and you have the adequate facilities and capabilities of testing, when you get blips of new infection, you can adequately identify, isolate and contact trace. Once you get to a level where there is community spread, particularly given the fact that a significant proportion of cases are without symptoms and spread occurs without symptoms, then things start to ratchet up and get out of control. So if we can keep the lid on things at a level low enough, i believe we can step by step open as much as possible of the economy but that doesnt mean were going to get back to completely normal. I believe, in order to do that, we are going to need a safe and effective vaccine to complement the Public Health measures and thats the reason why the information that came out very recently where we started a phase three trial of a vaccine just a couple of days ago and multiple other candidates over the next few months will be beginning phase three trials to determine efficacy and additional safety of a vaccine. With that timetable, we would hope, given the fact these trials are ongoing now, for example the one that started a couple of days ago was going to have 30,000 people in the trial, that in the next several months as we get into the late fall and early winter, we might have an answer to the safety and efficacy of vaccine trials and i feel cautiously optimistic. There is a medical report from the centre for American Progress this week in the United States that is very concerned about the production and distribution of the vaccine, even suggesting that it could take up to two years for americans to actually get the vaccine, so its great the research is producing these positive results now, and i know youve said that we could be getting some good news from that in the autumn or in the winter, but, realistically, how long is it going to be before i can get a vaccine . Youll probably get one pretty quickly but before most americans can get a vaccine. I think it would be well into 2021. I dont think it will be two years and the reason i say that is because what weve done here in United States. Well into 2021 is what, near the end of next year . Let me explain to you why i think thats not necessarily the case. Whats being done now with the production of vaccine to have doses available that the United States government has invested billions of dollars, hundreds of millions and billions of dollars to start producing vaccine at risk. At risk means you are starting to make the doses before you even have proven that the vaccine works. Which means that, if the vaccine does work, youve saved many months. If the vaccine doesnt work, the risk is youve lost a lot of money. You havent risked safety, you havent risked scientific integrity. In that context, the companies are telling us that they will have available within 2021 in the first few months to the middle, hundreds of millions of doses and, by the end of the year, as many as1 billion doses. Youre talking about per company. That being the case, and i dont know if it will be the first quarter, middle or the last quarter, but, in 2021, there should be enough doses if the companies do what we are paying them to do, that they can give widespread distribution of vaccines. Dr fauci, thank you forjoining us and best of luck to you. Thank you, katty, its always good to be with you, thank you for having me. Pa rt part two of the weekend is similar to how it was yesterday, sunshine and showers, many southern areas staying dry altogether. You will notice is fresher than what it was yesterday. This evening and overnight most of the showers will die away, lengthy clear skies, light wings with a cooler air mass a chillier night to come with single figure values in the north, double figures in the south. Into monday, similarto figures in the south. Into monday, similar to how the weekend has been, sunshine and showers. Showers will become heavier across northern and eastern parts of england into the afternoon, the odd thundery one mixed in, but many central and southern areas should stay dry altogether. Top temperatures 20 22. Disappointing for early august. It will turn wet across northern and Western Areas, windy as well, and then towards the end of the week it warms up then towards the end of the week it warms up and becomes very warm or hot across the south and the east. On suspicion of rape
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