During a panel discussion on CNN’s “New Day,” Dr. Sanjay Gupta harshly criticized indications by Donald Trump that he is thinking of relaxing social separation standards during the coronavirus pandemic because he is trying to boost the economy of the U.S.

Speaking with hosts John Berman, the doctor said the country is only now beginning to see the effects of the COVID-19 spread and is likely to explode due to lack of testing.

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He then turned to the example of how the coronavirus response has been playing out in Hong Kong.

“This was the model that a lot of people were holding up,” he relayed. “They had a relatively low case volume of confirmed cases and then, you know, the sense was a little bit of complacency — take the foot off the gas a little bit and within a few days, you saw the number of cases double.”

“Many of those cases, to be fair, were cases that were imported, coming from other countries and then starting to circulate within Hong Kong again,” he continued. “But, look, you don’t have to look throughout history, but you can just look around the world right now to see what happens if you start to pull back on some of these measures. I worry that we could have the worst of both worlds in the sense that the numbers go up again significantly as they already are, and we don’t have any benefits to the economy that people are trying to balance this with.”

“Because, you know, we’ll be dealing with this for a much longer time at a higher volume,” he warned. “So Hong Kong a cautionary tale. People should read about what’s happening in Hong Kong, understand that and it might give a better sense of what to try to avoid here.”

He then added, “I take no joy in saying this.”

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