The latest comments from Anthony Fauci, the long-time director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the most senior public health expert on the White House coronavirus task force, will turn your head.
He was interviewed on CNN and also did an interview for National Geographic.
He discussed with CNN's Chris Cuomo last night to what extent America's state, national and local leaders are willing to accept more sickness and death from coronavirus in order to release the stifled social and economic energy of the country.
"It's the balance of something that's a very difficult choice," Fauci said.
Then he went on: "How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept to get back to what you want to be some form of normality sooner rather than later?" he asked.
That's a question that Donald Trump is now asking out loud, effectively, as are some others. More on that in a moment.
Fauci also accompanied his question with this point, after a discussion of forecasts yesterday that showed a projected doubling of deaths, almost, in the case of a rushed reopening, saying:
"When we have a lot of virus activity and you know that you are able to contain it to a certain degree" with the kinds of mitigating measures we've been practicing, such as social distancing and wearing masks in public "and you start to leapfrog over some of these, you are inviting a rebound [of coronavirus cases] . And rebound is going to give you spikes and spikes are going to give you the kind of numbers" being discussed.
Meanwhile, in National Geographic interview, Fauci said the scientific evidence was "very, very strongly leaning toward" the conclusion that the virus originated in nature and jumped from animals to humans.
That was after secretary of state Mike Pompeo contradicted his own intelligence and military chiefs and, without any evidence details, said there was "enormous evidence" that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab and also was probably manmade.
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