Obama Weighs In on Steph Curry, Dr. Fauci Coronavirus Interview: 'Listen to the Science. Do Your Part, and Take Care of Each Other'

On Thursday, former President Barack Obama weighed in on an interview between Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus task force.

The two were have a conversation on Instagram live when Obama joined and commented, "Listen to the science. Do your part and take care of each other. Thank you, Steph and Dr. Fauci."

Obama was one of the tens of thousands of those who viewed the interview, showing the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on the U.S. According to a tracker provided by Johns Hopkins University, the new coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19 has infected over 510,000 people worldwide and over 75,000 in the U.S.

Some other prominent names who joined the stream include Justin Bieber and Curry's former Warriors' teammate Andre Iguodala.

During the interview, Fauci and Curry discussed many of the basic questions surrounding the coronavirus, starting with the difference of the virus when compared to the flu.

"The reason it's different is that it's very, very much more transmissible than flu and more importantly it's significantly more serious," Fauci said. "The overall mortality of seasonal flu...is about 0.1 percent. The overall mortality of coronavirus is about 1 percent. Sometimes, like in China, it was up to 2 to 3 percent, which means it's at least 10 times more serious than the typical influenza."

Prior to the NBA suspending the remainder of its season, Curry had just returned to the court after suffering a broken hand. He only played five games this season, but during the interview, he asked Fauci when he thinks the threat level of public gatherings, such as an NBA game, will decrease, alluding to his desire to get back on the court.

"What you need to see is the trajectory of the curve start to come down," Fauci said. "The United States is a big country, we have so many different regions, like New York City right now is having a terrible time, and yet there are places in the country that are doing really quite well."

"So the direct answer to your question is, we can start thinking about getting back to some degree of normality when the country as a whole has turned that corner and start coming down," Fauci added, referring to the increasing cases of the coronavirus in the U.S.

As the interview neared its end, Curry asked Fauci what he felt was the biggest misconception that is being talked about with the coronavirus.

"This dichotomy between people who are being frightened to death of it versus people who don't even believe it and think it's something trivial that you don't have to worry about," Fauci answered. "I want to get rid of that misconception that there's extremes, either the world is gonna end or we don't want to do anything. It isn't that, it's somewhere in the middle."