Dr. Anthony Fauci plans to tell a Senate committee this morning that the country risks needless suffering and death if states open up too quickly, he told The New York Times late Monday evening.

If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines to: 'Open America Again,' then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country, Fauci said in an email to the Times, referring to the federal government's plan for states to re-open.

Fauci's planned testimony will fuel a hearing where senators will finally get a chance today to face off over the effectiveness of the Trump administration's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, in what could be one of the only public hearings featuring members of the White House's coronavirus task force.

The hearing will be Democrats' first opportunity since March to question leading medical experts — including Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield — about the Trump administration's response.