“And the reason I’m concerned and my colleagues in public health are also concerned is that we may very well see a post-seasonal increase, in the sense of Christmas, New Year, and, as I have already described, as a surge on a wave, because if you look at the slope, the slope of the cases that we experience when we enter late autumn and early winter, is really very worrying, “Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said CNN’s Dana Bash on the “State of the Union”.
“We are really at a very critical point. … So I share President-elect Biden’s concern that, as we get into the coming weeks, things could get worse.”
The comments of the country’s leading infectious disease specialist come as the United States records its most lethal month since the coronavirus pandemic began – with more than 63,000 Americans dying from the virus in December so far. More than 1 million people were scanned at airports on Saturday, despite warnings from health officials not to travel over the Christmas holiday and the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise across the country.
“One thing I promise you about my leadership during this crisis: I will tell you frankly. I will tell you the truth. And here is the simple truth: our darkest days in the battle against Covid are coming from us, not behind us. “said Biden, who received a coronavirus vaccine, in comments at the time.
“So we need to prepare, strengthen our spine. As frustrating as it is to listen, it takes patience, persistence and determination to beat this virus. There will be no time to lose by taking the steps we need to follow. This crisis around,” he said. he.
On Sunday, Fauci again recommended that Trump, who has not yet received the vaccine, be vaccinated.
“The decision as to whether he will be vaccinated rests with him and the White House doctor, a person I know is a very competent doctor,” said Fauci. “My recommendation, and I’ve said it before, is that I vaccinate him. He’s still the president of the United States. A critical person.”
However, there are no safety or efficacy data for vaccines in people who have been treated for Covid-19 with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma; Trump’s treatment of Covid-19 included Regeneron’s cocktail of monoclonal antibodies. The CDC’s guidance said that “vaccination should be postponed for at least 90 days, as a precautionary measure until additional information is available, to avoid interfering with antibody treatment with the vaccine-induced immune responses.”
Adjusted herd immunity estimates
“We have to realize that we have to be humble and understand what we don’t know,” he said. “These are pure estimates and the calculations I made, 70 to 75%, are a range. The range will be somewhere between 70 and 85%.”
The doctor added that the reason he first said 70 to 75% and then increased the number to 85% – an adjustment he considered “not a big jump” – “was really based on pure measles calculations and extrapolations”.
“So, I did a calculation that Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, is not as transmissible as measles, measles is the most communicable infection you can imagine,” he said. “So, I imagine you would need something a little less than 90%, that’s when I reached 85.”
Everyone, said Fauci, needs to be “honest and humble, nobody knows for sure, but I think 70 to 85% for herd immunity for Covid-19 is a reasonable estimate and, in fact, most of my epidemiology colleagues agree with me . “
CNN’s Naomi Thomas and Jamie Gumbrecht contributed to this report.