US can get coronavirus levels 'way down' by Election Day in November, Fauci says

The United States has what it takes to get Covid-19 case levels down to more manageable levels by Election Day in November if it uses masks and other “fundamental tenets of infection control” — but it needs to get serious now, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN on Thursday.

“We can be way down in November … if we do things correctly , and if we start right now,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s “New Day.”

Fauci’s roadmap is the same one he’s been preaching, including using masks in public, social distancing and washing hands. And he points to hopeful signs that this works. Arizona, which had a significant outbreak this summer, has “started to really clamp down and do things right,” he said.

Arizona went from averaging nearly 4,000 cases a day in early July to below 2,000 new cases a day now, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

“I really do believe, based on the data we see in other countries, and in the United States, in states and cities and counties that have done it correctly, that if we pay attention to the fundamental tenets of infection control and diminution of transmission, we can be way down in November,” Fauci said.

“Everybody on the team of American citizens needs to pull together. … It’s up to us,” he said