Dr. Fauci tried to downplay the reports of the low death rate of the coronavirus. The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spoke during a joint press conference with Democrat Alabama Senator Doug Jones. He tried to warn people that being complacent because of the low death rate being reported now is a false narrative. He did encourage the people of Alabama that their state has an opportunity to respond to the virus in the right way.

“You’re not there yet, so you have an opportunity, a window to get your arms around this and to prevent it from getting worse. It’s not to the point where it’s out of hand, and you know, very difficult to control. So you have a window of opportunity here, that as a state, you should not, you should, you know, take advantage of that window of opportunity,” Fauci said. He added that taking comfort in the low death rate is a false narrative. That’s because there are so many bad things about the coronavirus that it can easily wreak havoc.

Senator Jones agreed with what the doctor was saying. He said that they might be doing a disservice by focusing on the number of deaths. Because there is a clear rise in the number of deaths, the slow down might catch too much attention, and people might lose sight of the fact that the virus is still out there. Jones added that just because the number of casualties is going down, that doesn’t mean that they should take things easy.

Dr. Fauci isn’t all about gloom and doom. He said that young and healthy people are less likely to catch the disease. Also, the disease’s treatment has advanced to such a point that patients can really be taken care of. Although Fauci is against draconian federal measures that would make masks mandatory and other measures for prevention might be taken as an infringement on Americans’ rights and freedoms, he is supportive of local measures that aim to do the same.