Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, sparred Wednesday over the country’s efforts to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 and when “herd immunity” from the virus is reached.The unusually testy exchange occurred during Fauci’s testimony in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreakDuring his questioning, Paul, who was a practicing ophthalmologist before he was a senator, said that some states in the Northeast, specifically New York, allowed the coronavirus to spread unchecked before locking down, leading to widespread cases and death.It is true that New York leads the country in Covid-19 deaths: Nearly 34,00 people have died of the virus in the state, the vast majority in the spring, according to an NBC News database.”New York had the highest death rate in the world,” Paul said. “How can we possibly be jumping up and down and saying, ‘Oh, Governor Cuomo did a great job!'” he added, referring to Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat.”No, you misconstrued that, senator. And you’ve done that repetitively,” Fauci responded, adding that New York was hit badly as the virus was spreading silently before cases of severe disease erupted. He also acknowledged the state “made mistakes” but did not elaborate.New York “probably should have closed a week or two earlier than they did,” Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the school of public health at Brown University, told NBC News in an interview. But, he added, “if anybody can tell you that they knew in February that New York was getting hit hard, and should have done something different, they’re smarter than anybody else. None of us knew it was going to be that bad.”Fauci, director the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted during the exchange with Paul that New York has been able to bring down its test positivity rate to 1 percent or less because the state adhered to guidelines such as wearing masks, social distancing outdoors, avoiding crowds and washing hands.Paul cut off Fauci, dismissing those mitigation efforts. He implied instead that New Yorkers have “developed enough community immunity” to beat the pandemic.”I challenge that,” Fauci said. “You were not listening to what the director of the CDC said, that in New York, it’s about 22 percent. If you believe 22 percent is herd immunity, I believe you’re alone in that.”Herd immunity occurs when enough people become immune to a contagious disease, making further spread unlikely. Those trained in infectious disease say at least 60 percent of a population needs to have been exposed to a virus to reach herd immunity.RelatedScienceScienceExperts warn about the ‘brutal arithmetic’ of applying herd immunity to humansBut Paul referred to research suggesting people have “pre-existing, cross-reactive immunity to coronavirus,” which “may explain why we have so many people that have very little symptoms or are asymptomatic.”Because most of us have b
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