'Tempting fate and asking for trouble': Dr. Fauci rips Ozark pool partiers for blowing off pandemic safety

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, slammed the large crowds that gathered for a now-infamous pool party in Missouri over the weekend for blowing off social distancing guidelines.

During an interview with CNN's Jim Sciutto, Fauci was asked what he made of the people who were captured on video partying without keeping any distance or wearing any face masks.

"When you have situations in which you see that type of crowding, with no masks and people interacting, that's not prudent and that's inviting a situation that could get out of control," Fauci said. "So I keep -- when I get an opportunity to plead with people, understanding you do want to gradually do this, but don't start leapfrogging over the recommendations and guidelines because that's tempting fate and asking for trouble."

Fauci acknowledged that there would likely be an increase in cases in the coming days as more places reopened, but he said there were still measures that people should be taking to limit the number of new infections and preventing an uncontrolled outbreak.

"We are going to see upticks of cases, even under the best of circumstances, when you reopen, we know that," he said. "That's something you accept and what we need to do is have the capability of responding in an effective way, of doing the kind of identification, isolation, and contact tracing."

Watch the video below.