Dr. Anthony Fauci 1-on-1 talks COVID-19 safety precautions

FOX 2 - Dr. Anthony Fauci from President Trump's Coronavirus Task Force joined FOX 2 on Friday to talk about the COVID-10 pandemic.

FOX 2: "Let's begin with the governor's stay-at-home order that was extended today, while also allowing some landscapers to open back up, some businesses to open and golf courses and boating. What are your thoughts?"

Fauci: "As I've said consistently all along, we have a well-thought out, well-structured program which is really guidelines. Obviously the ultimate decision is in the hands of the governor and the local authorities, but the guidelines are pretty clear about what I would say, having almost a rolling careful entry into the reopening of the country in general, and to a specific location in particular. That is, to have the kinds of criteria where you have what we call 'gating.' If the cases are going down consistently over 14 days you enter into phase one. And the kind of things you can do in phase one, is still have a considerable amount of mitigation and physical separation, All the things are very clearly delineated there, if that looks good you move to the next phase and the next phase.

"So there may be some iterations of that on the individual scale, but my recommendation has been and always will be, to the best of one's ability to take a look at the deliberate, slow, but safe process of the recommended approach towards re-opening."

FOX 2: "We've heard mixed messages of warmer weather helping mitigate the coronavirus and then we have also heard from the task force that perhaps that's not the case. Can you clear that up for us?"

Fauci: "That's a great question that keeps getting asked but unfortunately, often it's taken out of context. So let me start and do it deliberately and slow. Putting coronavirus aside, just think of respiratory viruses in general. Influenza, the common benign, noncurrent coronaviruses, other upper respiratory viruses, generally can be seasonal. Namely they tend to do better, better - being infect people better - in cold, dry weather. And they tend to do not so well in warm, moist weather. That's general and never one hundred percent but we have seen it with other viruses.

"Now, the fact is, we do not know whether that will pertain to this coronavirus, so we should not count on changes in weather helping us. What we should count on to help us as we go into the late spring and summer, is the effect of our own mitigation. The effect of the things that we, as a society are doing to prevent the spread of the virus.

FOX 2: "What about business owners are watching this and who want to open their offices back up. What do you tell them in terms how that will look, will temperatures be taken, people having to wear masks, what will that look like?"

Fauci: "First of all, everybody through every phase, has to be careful with regard to the physical distancing. Obviously there are some jobs that you really cannot be six feet apart. You may not be able to have 10 people always, as the maximum at that time you are interacting with. That being the case, then wear a simple cloth mask. I wouldn't even say mask. It's a covering. And the reason we don't use the word mask is we don't want people taking masks away from the health care providers and those who really need them versus those who are doing it for a good reason because they can't physically stay six feet away. But rather than have people maybe hear or not the right thing, these are clearly delineated go to cdc.gov or coronavirus.gov and get into the website and the different phase of how you get back to normality are very clearly delineated."