The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that it is “possible” that Americans still need to wear face masks in 2022, even though the country may get closer. of a certain “degree of normality.”
FAUCI DOWNPLAYS WORRIES ABOUT VARIABLES OF COVID-19, BUT CLAIMS VARIANT VACCINES IN DEVELOPMENT
Although Fauci noted that he cannot predict when the United States will be able to return to the way it operated during pre-pandemic life, he believes that by the end of the year, the United States may have “a significant degree of normalcy beyond the terrible burden. that we’ve all been through in the last year. ”
“As we enter autumn and winter, at the end of the year, I agree with [President Biden] completely, that we will be approaching a degree of normality, “said Fauci.” It may or may not be exactly the way it was in November 2019, but it will be much better than what we are doing now. ”
However, Fauci pointed out that this is only an estimate and that “many things can happen to change that.”
“That is the reason why we have to be careful,” added Fauci. “Because you have a variation that you need to deal with. There are so many other things that would make a projection that I give you today this Sunday, end up not being the case six months from now.”
DR. FAUCI: USA WE WILL HAVE 600M OF DOSES OF CORONAVIRUS VACCINE BY JULY 2021
Fauci explained that the prevalence of coronavirus in the community will be the determining factor in when Americans will not need to wear masks, noting that he would like to see the level of transmission drop to a baseline so low that there is a “minimal threat that you will be exposed to someone who is infected. ”
“If you combine the vaccination of most people in the country with obtaining a very, very low level of virus in the community, then I believe you will be able to say that you know that, for the most part, we don’t necessarily have to wear masks,” he said. Fauci. “When it decreases and the overwhelming majority of people in the population are vaccinated, I would feel comfortable saying that you know that we need to remove the masks, we don’t need to have masks.”
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 63 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the United States by Sunday. According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, COVID-19 has infected more than 28 million Americans since March 2020 and resulted in more than 498,000 related deaths.