Coronavirus: Trump retweets call to fire Fauci

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley says "President Trump is not firing Dr. Fauci," after President Trump retweeted a call to fire the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Former White House Medical Unit Physician for Obama, Biden and Pence, Dr. Jennifer Pena, joins Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith to discuss.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: So latest numbers that we have-- number of cases worldwide topping 1.8 million. Here in the US, the US has the largest number of cases in the world-- more than 558,000 cases so far. There is, though, a glimmer of some hope. There are some signs of success just in terms of the slowing the spread of the virus.

And for more on that, I want to bring in Dr. Jennifer Pena, former White House Medical Unit Physician rejoining the show right now. And Dr. Pena, thanks again for joining us. I want to get your thoughts just in terms of what we heard from Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York. So we know New York has been the epicenter of the outbreak here in the US.

Now he did say that there are some signs that cases are stabilizing, talking about potentially easing lockdowns. He's holding a press conference right now with the governors of the tri-state area, along with Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Rhode Island right now. What do you think just in terms of where we are in the outbreak? And has your outlook changed at all since the last time we spoke a couple of weeks ago?

JENNIFER PENA: Thank you, Seana. And thank you for having me back on. First of all, I just want to say, so refreshing to see that collaboration among the states. That is the kind of unified message and teamwork that it takes to be able to get through this crisis. So I commend Governor Cuomo for that initiative. As he mentioned, in New York, we are seeing a flattening, if you will, of that curve. Specifically, we're noticing less numbers of hospitalizations and less number of ICU admissions, even though the death rate is still high, because, as we now know, the death rate can lag behind a little bit in terms of that stabilization of numbers.

And so it is reassuring, but we have to approach this was cautious optimism, right? We don't want to do anything too rash that will cause that curve to turn back. We have to start focusing now on how do we bring down the curve after we've flattened, right? We don't want to take a step back. And so what's going to be important, which has been mentioned by the governors, is working on isolation, working on testing for identification as we start to work on how we're going to plan to reopen the economy.

It has to be done methodically in a stepwise fashion. And not all the states are going to be able to do it at the same time, as was mentioned by some of the governors. Not all the states are in the exact same place in terms of the peak. But once we develop a blueprint, if you will, something that works for maybe a state like New York, then the other states can start to follow suit. And so again, certain sectors might be able to open up things like essential jobs, but all of those factors have to be put in place-- mass testing, so that we can isolate and do contact tracing appropriately.

SEANA SMITH: You know, Dr. Pena, I want to ask you about the testing, because it's so key just in terms of being able to open up, reopen the economy, and do it in a very safe way. Where do we stand on the number of tests? And do we have enough at this point in order to potentially reopen some parts of the nation in a smart way and have the benefits potentially outweigh the risks at this point?

JENNIFER PENA: Right. So in terms of numbers, you know, obviously, we're getting better. We're opening up a lot more centers for testing. But when we talk about testing, Seana, and we need to remember there's two types of testing. The testing that we're referring to at this point is still the antigen testing to check for the virus to see if you're infected. What we're working on now is we're working on flattening the curve and moving ahead in terms of opening the economy as antibody testing-- checking to see who has immunity against the COVID.

And that's what we have not yet started at mass scale with tests that has been FDA approved. There are a lot of tests out there that are being advertised for this antibody testing, but we have to remember the FDA has only considered one specific antibody test at this point. The FDA used its emergency powers for it, but it still needs a formal review. And so hopefully, as Dr. Fauci mentioned in a brief last week, hopefully we'll start to see that roll out here in the next week or two, so that we can start doing antibody testing, which is going to be essential to reopen the economy.

SEANA SMITH: Right. And what's interesting about this was we had the news from the World Health Organization earlier today. And the officials there saying that it's unclear whether recovered coronavirus patients are immune to a second infection. Can you tell us anything about this and what this-- about how we could potentially or how we could see a very deadly second wave here in the US?

JENNIFER PENA: Absolutely. So we don't know, right? We still don't know enough about the virus and how much immunity you actually have after you've been infected. Equally we don't know. And that's why these tests require vetting, right, is if you show immunity, how good is that? I mean, is it going to protect you from a second infection or re-infection? And so that's why vetting these tests is going to be very important and just analyzing the situation, getting to know more about the virus. So that we know what kind of degree of immunity we need to be able to combat this in the future. So yes, more to follow. We'll have to see how this develops, but it is very much a possibility.

SEANA SMITH: Dr. Pena, I want to draw on your experience as a White House medical unit physician. And we had the news over the weekend, and also this morning really, the rift between President Trump and Dr. Fauci. Now President Trump publicly signaling his frustration with the doctor earlier today. He re-posted a Tweet saying that Dr. Fauci should be fired. When we see this type of discord in the administration, how does this complicate the government's response to the coronavirus outbreak at this point, do you think?

JENNIFER PENA: So Seana, I have a saying. I like to say that pills and politics don't compound well. And medicine should be a-political. Honestly, it would be tragic for the American people to lose Dr. Fauci as the scientific voice of reason that's representing the White House corona task force. It all comes down to who do you trust with your health care-- a physician or a politician? Right?

And so it is not really a time to play politics using these White House briefings as a stage for political campaigning. It's just a grotesque at this time where so many people are dying. And so we really have to have data-driven, unified message, just like these governors did in this press brief today. It's the only way we're going to get the attention and the trust of the American people in this crucial moment in our history.

SEANA SMITH: Dr. Jennifer Pena, again, thanks so much for rejoining the show. We really appreciate it.

JENNIFER PENA: Thank you, Seana.