Just Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set guidelines that meetings of more than 50 people should cease to combat COVID-19. The president and his task force decreased that number four-fold by Monday afternoon.
In a press briefing with his Coronavirus Task Force, President Donald Trump advised the nation to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. The new guidelines call for Americans limiting those gatherings to just 10 people or less for the next 15 days to slow the spread of the virus.
The president also said he was not sure when the pandemic will come to pass, but it could be as late in the summer as “July or August.”
The White House’s new guidelines also suggested citizens to avoid eating and drinking at bars, restaurants and food courts; going on shopping trips and making social visits, visiting nursing homes and retirement or long-term care facilities.
Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health emphasized that drive-thru testing in states across the country should be made a priority for those over the age of 65 or those showing symptoms.
Dr. Deborah Birx, member of the Coronavirus Task Force, spoke to the responsibility on the shoulders of millennials, the nation’s largest generation, to adhere to the guidelines put out Monday.
With several reporters asking why the change in the federal guidelines occurred, Birx said her team discovered new information Monday about how limiting the social gatherings could impact curbing the virus.
“We had new information coming out (from models),” Birx said. “What had the biggest impact in the model was social distancing, small groups and not going in the public...We talked about it before, it’s a silent virus. HIV was silent, and the HIV epidemic was solved by the community.”
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