Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks with Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), not pictured, before taking Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine. received at an event at the NIH Clinical Center Masur Auditorium in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, on Tuesday, December 22, 2020. The National Institutes of Health will host a live-stream vaccination event to enhance the organization’s efforts for its employees on the front lines of the pandemic to start. Photographer: Patrick Semansky / Associated Press / Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Sunday that an already rising tide of coronavirus infections could be relaunched as Americans gather for Christmas and New Year celebrations, despite warnings from public health officials.
“It is entirely possible that after the season – in the sense of Christmas, New Year – we see a wave, and as I’ve described it, like a wave on a wave,” Fauci said in CNN’s State of the Union.
Fauci, a White House adviser and one of the country’s foremost infectious disease specialists, expressed optimism at the pace of vaccine distribution, which began this month after federal regulators released two drugs from Pfizer and Moderna. had approved.
But he said he agreed with President-elect Joe Biden’s assessment, who warned Tuesday that “our darkest days in this fight against Covid are ahead, not behind.”
“I share President-elect Biden’s concern that things could get even worse in the coming weeks,” Fauci said.
The United States recorded an average of 189,578 daily new Covid-19 cases and 2,250 deaths in the past week, according to a CNBC analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University. It is possible that those numbers are under numbers due to a dip in reporting during the holidays.
“When you’re dealing with a baseline of 200,000 cases a day and 2,000 deaths a day with more than 120,000 hospitalizations, we’re really at a very critical point,” Fauci said.
Fauci said that “travel and the likely gathering of people for the good warm purposes of being together on vacation” is putting pressure on the worsening crisis.
He also spoke of a mutation in the coronavirus that has been identified in the UK and said, “We are now looking closely at it.” Doctors in that country have said the mutation appears to be spreading faster, spurring a number of countries to suspend travel from the bloc. The US requires those flying from the country to test negative for Covid-19 from Monday.
Early evidence suggests that the mutation will not affect the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine and that it is not “more serious virus in terms of virulence,” added Fauci.
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