Kilmeade rips Fauci as COVID cases rise in parts of US: 'How much more sacrifice do we have to make?'

"The Five" co-host Brian Kilmeade said Friday that White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci is ignoring the sacrifices made by Americans during the pandemic when he discusses the spike in cases across parts of the U.S.

In Senate testimony earlier this week, Fauci said he was "very concerned" by the increase in cases, adding: "We are now having 40-plus-thousand new cases a day, I wouldn't be surprised if we go up to 100,000 [cases] a day if this does not turn around."

"In California and Florida, you can't go to the beach," the "Fox & Friends" host said. "Bars in Texas are shuttered again, fireworks displays across the country are canceled. So basically, Anthony Fauci and company said the best thing we could do was nothing and so far, for four months, he seems disappointed with us.

"Really?" Kilmeade went on. "We took the whole country and ground it to a halt. People gave up their jobs and livelihoods and stopped seeing people over 65 face-to-face. How much more sacrifice do we have to make?"

Kilmeade argued that the advancements made by Fauci and the scientific and medical communities toward determining an effective treatment or vaccine for the virus has not corresponded to the sacrifices Americans have made and the general adherence to extreme state lockdown orders.

"Find a way for the science community to catch up," the Fox News Radio host said. "I thought you went to college for this. We need a little bit more cutting-edge technology here"

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"Anthony Fauci is doing blogs, he's doing [NBA player] Steph Curry's podcasts -- can't he put on a lab coat and make some progress? Don't put down the country. He said 50 percent of the country shut down. No, 100 percent shut down. We are tired of being shut down."

The host of the "Brian Kilmeade Show" on Fox News Radio added that most Americans want to do their part, but have been let down by conflicting or contradictory guidance from officials.

"It was you guys who told us not to wear the mask," he said. "It was the Surgeon General [Dr. Jerome Adams] who told us it could make things worse if we wore the mask. So you started for two months telling us 'No' and now you're mad at us for not wearing it all the time, so I'm a little surprised where we are at right now," he said.