A new survey found that 49% of Republican men said they would not be vaccinated against Covid-19 and Dr. Vin Gupta said he “will determine the path of this pandemic” to the detriment of all Americans.
“All predictions now say that we will get over the worst of this with normality, say, in late June, early July. That, however, depends on whether people actually get the vaccine in 75% to 80% of eligible adults in that period. “said Gupta, who works in an intensive care unit. “If that is not the case – if there is such high skepticism or hesitation – we will not get there.”
Gupta, a pulmonologist and medical collaborator at NBC, pointed to models from the University of Washington Institute of Health Metrics and Assessment (IHME) that suggest that the U.S. may still have 100,000 cases and at least 1,000 deaths per day if adult rates eligible to receive vaccines were below projections.
Joe Biden promised a quick return to normality during his first prime-time speech as president on Thursday night.
“After this long and difficult year, it will make this Independence Day something truly special, where we not only mark our independence as a nation, but we begin to mark our independence from this virus,” he said.
Gupta, who is an affiliate assistant professor at the University of Washington’s IHME, told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that Covid will be something that Americans live with and that it will become more of an endemic virus, meaning that it will regularly be found among the population.
“There will still be transmission of the virus, but people will not get sick and end up in the hospital,” said Gupta. “This is the hope that only a small segment of society can remain vulnerable, and we can manage that. This is how normality will be; management, not complete eradication.”