Fauci says US 'not there yet' on reopening economy, May 1 target a 'bit' too optimistic

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Dr. Anthony Fauci clarifies answer to hypothetical question, says Trump agreed with mitigation recommendations

White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci makes remarks at daily briefing.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that the U.S. does not have the testing and tracing procedures necessary to safely begin reopening the economy amid the coronavirus crisis, while warning that the White House’s May 1 target may be a “bit” too optimistic.

In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and a member of the president's coronavirus task force, underscored the need for critical testing before returning to normal.

FAUCI EXPRESSES 'CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM' ON CORONAVIRUS

“We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet,” Fauci said during his interview with The Associated Press.

Fauci’s comments come as President Trump and others in the administration are weighing how to reopen sectors of the nation’s economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House extended social distancing guidelines through April 30, and has floated the possibility of potentially reopening some areas by May 1.

Fauci, though, told the AP that May 1 is “a bit overly optimistic” for many areas of the country, while suggesting that much of the social-distancing rules should occur on a “rolling” basis, rather than all at once, due to the coronavirus striking different parts of the country at different times over the last several weeks.

Fauci also warned, yet again, that once restrictions are rolled back and the economy begins to reopen, there are likely to be new outbreaks of COVID-19.

“I’ll guarantee you, once you start pulling back there will be infections,” Fauci told the AP. “It’s how you deal with the infectious that’s going to count.”

He added that the key is “getting people out of circulation if they get infected, because once you start getting clusters, then you’re really in trouble.”

The interview comes after an apparent dust-up between Fauci and Trump.

Fauci, on Sunday, acknowledged during an interview on CNN that lives could have been saved had U.S. officials acted earlier, but still defended the Trump administration’s response.

“‘What would have, what could have,’ it’s very difficult to go back and say that. I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But, what goes into those kinds of decisions is complicated,” Fauci said Sunday on CNN. ”If we had, right from the very beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different, but there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down.”

TRUMP DEFENDS EARLY CORONAVIRUS ACTIONS, FAUCI REGRETS POOR CHOICE OF WORDS IN CONTENTIOUS WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING

Following his comments, the president retweeted a message that included the hashtag "#FireFauci," but the administration said that the reaction to the post missed the point.

Rather, Trump was just trying to respond to a media "falsehood" about the coronavirus response, according to the White House.

"This media chatter is ridiculous – President Trump is not firing Dr. Fauci. The president’s tweet clearly exposed media attempts to maliciously push a falsehood about his China decision in an attempt to rewrite history," White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

"It was Democrats and the media who ignored coronavirus choosing to focus on impeachment instead, and when they finally did comment on the virus it was to attack President Trump for taking the bold decisive action to save American lives by cutting off travel from China and from Europe. Dr. Fauci has been and remains a trusted adviser to President Trump," Gidley said.

Fauci had to clarify his comments during Monday’s White House coronavirus briefing, which turned contentious, saying they were incomplete and that the president was not to blame for the havoc COVID-19 has wreaked on the country.

During the briefing, Fauci denied that the president or anybody in the administration had pressured him into clarifying his comments.

“Everything I do is voluntary,” Fauci said. “Please don’t even imply that.”

Meanwhile, during his interview with the AP, Fauci said his public role is important, but added that briefings can be “really draining.” Most of the coronavirus task force briefings last more than an hour — with Monday’s running for nearly two-and-a-half.

“If I had been able to just make a few comments and then go to work, that would have really been much better,” he told the AP. “It isn’t the idea of being there and answering questions, which I really think is important for the American public. It’s the amount of time.”

Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly, Ronn Blitzer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.