President Donald Trump said Friday that he believed the coronavirus pandemic would “go away without a vaccine,” contradicting countless warnings from the medical community and his own White House task force. “I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “This is going to go away without a vaccine, it’s gonna go away, and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time.” Trump added that while the U.S. may see “some flare-ups” of the virus, and while the virus could remain throughout the year, he believed states should lift restrictions and let Americans go back to work. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and member of the White House coronavirus task force, does not think COVID-19 will suddenly go away. “I don’t think there’s a chance that this virus is just going to disappear,” he said recently. “It’s going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge.” He said he was “almost certain it will come back because the virus is so transmissible and it’s globally spread.”