Celebrities, like Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz, have endorsed plans for states to slowly reopen their economies, while the country’s lead immunology expert, Anthony Fauci, has offered words of caution.
The big picture: As several famous doctors have gone on-air with major news networks, including Fox News, “[t]he conflicting views … highlight how expert advice on the coronavirus has been undermined by celebrity doctors with little to no infectious disease experience,” the Washington Post writes.
Why it matters: Some of the guidance from celebrity doctors comes at a time when people across the U.S. are protesting shelter-at-home orders and mandates to close non-essential business, claiming those directives infringe on their freedoms.
- Fauci told Ingraham: “…I have to tell you, the degree of efficiency of transmissibility of this is really unprecedented in anything that I’ve seen. It’s an extraordinarily efficient virus in transmitting from one person to another. Those kind of viruses don’t just disappear.”
- McGraw, who has a PhD in clinical psychology but is not licensed to practice medicine, followed Fauci’s interview, saying, “We have people dying, 45,000 people a year die from automobile accidents, 480,000 from cigarettes, 360,000 a year from swimming pools, but we don’t shut the country down for that.” He added that if people don’t return to work and school, they may face anxiety, depression and other challenges.
- Reality check per Axios Caitlin Owens: Leading coronavirus modeling has recently lowered its projection for the number of American deaths, a sign that social distancing is working