Nearly 66 million Americans have received at least one dose of their COVID vaccine and about half of those people (35 million) are fully vaccinated, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). With 17% of the adult population fully vaccinated in the United States, Americans are finally beginning to feel hopeful and to feel that the return to some aspects of our previous lives is not as distant as it seemed. Although being fully vaccinated allows for a little more freedom and a lot more sense of calm, in a new interview at The last show with Stephen Colbert on March 12, Anthony FauciMD, the chief adviser to the White House’s COVID, said there is a place that is not yet safe to go. Read on to find out the only place you should still avoid, according to Fauci, and for more guidance on vaccines, see This is what it means if you have no side effects from the vaccine, doctors say.
Fauci talked to the dawn host Stephen Colbert in honor of COVID’s one-year anniversary taking over the United States. In a round of quick questions, Colbert tried to clarify some information about what is safe and what is not for people who are fully vaccinated. In addition to asking about handshakes and bringing back his live audience, Colbert asked, “If I get the vaccine, can I go to the clubs two weeks after I get the shot?”
Fauci was quick to close that one. “No, you must not attack clubs until we have lowered the level of the virus to the point that there is no threat of reaching the clubs.” And to learn more about what not to do before the injection, see Don’t do it the night before the vaccine appointment, experts say.
During the pandemic, Fauci and other medical professionals warned of the danger of closed bars and clubs, where ventilation is poor, crowding is high, masks are removed and inhibitions are also reduced.
“Bars are really problematic. I have to say that if you look at some of the outbreaks that we saw, that’s when people go to bars, crowded bars,” said Fauci Elisabeth Rosenthal, editor in chief of Kaiser Health News, in November. “I liked to sit at a bar and grab a burger and a beer. But when you’re at a bar, people lean over your shoulders to get a drink, people close to each other like it. It’s kind of fun because it’s social , but it’s not fun when the virus is in the air. So, I think if there’s anything you want to suppress for now, it’s the bars. “And for more COVID news delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our daily newsletter.
Fauci’s warning comes at a time when certain states have begun to ease their restrictions since COVID cases eased after peaking in January. States like Texas, Mississippi and Wyoming have withdrawn their masking mandates in recent weeks and others like New York, Virginia and Louisiana have reduced restrictions on bars, entertainment venues and restaurants.
“You don’t want to turn the switch on and off and say, ‘OK, we’re doing fine. We are going to stop everything we are doing in relation to public health ‘. We don’t want to do that, “said Fauci in The Late Show.
“But this is happening across the country, in several states,” said Colbert. “People are saying, ‘OK! Back to the pool!'”
He then asked Fauci what his advice would be for states to loosen restrictions. “It’s really risky. Now, although cases have been dropping sharply in recent weeks, it has started to stagnate a bit. And if it does, it is stagnating at an unacceptably high level – around 50,000 to 60,000 new infections a day. And every time we saw a plateau at that level, there was always a risk of having another outbreak again, “he said. “Everyone empathizes with this need to start getting back to normal. Everyone wants to do this … It will happen, Stephen, it is – it is guaranteed to happen, but we have to do it with caution and care.”
And to see how your state is doing at the moment, check how high the COVID risk level in your state is, the data shows.
During an interview on March 4 with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Fauci established a timetable for when he would be it is acceptable for states to begin to react to public health restrictions. He even set a specific number to which new cases would have to fall in order for it to be safe to open and remove mask mandates.
“I would like to see, as we lower the level of viruses in the community to a very low level, well, well below 60,000 to 70,000 new infections, somewhere,” he told Tapper. “Even if there isn’t a good model there yet … I would say less than 10,000, and maybe even considerably less than that.”
And to learn more about what not to do after being vaccinated, see Don’t do it until a month after your COVID vaccine, experts warn.