WASHINGTON – Dr. Anthony Fauci warned state leaders against the “risky business” of eliminating public health measures, raising concerns at Sunday’s “Meet the Press” that the nation could see a further increase in cases if it lets its guard down .
About a dozen states have recently lifted coronavirus-related restrictions, including mask orders or limits on internal meetings. But Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that even with things going “in the right direction”, the number of cases was still too high to declare “victory” by reducing restrictions.
“Although the decline has been accentuated, it is absolutely necessary to avoid the urgency to say; ‘Oh, everything is going very well,’ ”he told“ Meet the Press ”.
“Don’t hit the ball at the five-yard line. Wait until you reach the final zone. We are not in the final zone yet. “
There have been more than 29 million cases of coronavirus in America and more than 535,000 deaths attributed to the virus, according to analysis by NBC News. But the trends have been promising. The 7-day average of new daily cases is around 57,000, the lowest since October, and there have been more than 105 million doses of vaccine administered across the country (almost 37 million people are fully vaccinated and almost 69 million people are vaccinated). people received their first dose of vaccine, according to NBC News).
States reacted to trends differently – governors in Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma and Texas dismissed their states’ mask mandates, for example.
And some states, such as Connecticut, have reversed the boundaries of many domestic businesses, keeping masking mandates intact.
“When I hear about backing off public health measures completely, without saying more masks, none of this is a risky business,” said Fauci.
While Fauci was celebrating the decline in cases, he warned that an increase is still possible thanks to new variants of the virus, which experts warn may escape the vaccines or be more contagious. ”
“If you look at the numbers that have fallen, they have fallen so well in a very sharp decline. But in the past few weeks, we’ve had a plateau of infections. And what worries me, because history proves that I should be concerned, is when you reach a level around 60,000 new infections a day, there is always a risk of another peak, ”he said.
He also expressed concern about a political divide when it comes to vaccinations – a recent NPR / PBS NewsHour / Marist poll found that almost half (47 percent) of those who supported former President Donald Trump in the 2020 elections say they will not choose to be vaccinated, compared to just 10 percent of those who supported President Joe Biden – and asked Trump to do something to resolve the divide.
“The figures you have provided are so worrying that such a large proportion of a particular group of people would not want to be vaccinated because of political considerations,” said Fauci.
“We need to dissociate political persuasion from common sense, from the no-brainer, from public health things.”