Fauci: Political conventions may be held if coronavirus cases are ‘very low’

Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert on the White House coronavirus task force, said the Republican and Democratic nominating conventions could go on as planned this August if there’s a dramatic downturn in the number of cases.

“I mean, if we have a really significant diminution of new cases and hospitalizations, and we’re at a level where it’s really very low, then again, according to the guidelines, you may be able to go to whatever phase you’re in, and that’s some sort of a capability of gathering,” Fauci told CNN in an interview on Wednesday.

But he cautioned that “we need to reserve judgment right now to see what the situation would be.”

Both political parties are struggling with how to hold the conventions and the boost they provide the campaigns going into November’s election without the big crowds and rousing speeches because of social distancing guidelines in place because of the pandemic.

President Trump has told North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper that he has a week to let the Republicans know that his state can handle the convention scheduled for Aug. 24-27 in Charlotte.

“Now, if he can’t do it, if he feels that he’s not going to do it, all he has to do is tell us, and then we’ll have to pick another location.  And I will tell you, a lot of locations want it,” Trump said Tuesday at an event at the White House. “But I picked North Carolina because I do love that state, and it would’ve been a perfect place for it and it still would be.”

Trump said the deadline is needed before the Republican National Committee spends “millions and millions of dollars on an arena to make it magnificent for the convention.”

He also said Charlotte would miss out on the throngs of people who would descend on Charlotte for the convention, saying the “economic development consequences are tremendous.”

The Democratic National Committee moved its convention from July to Aug. 17-20 in Milwaukee because of the coronavirus.