The U.S. will likely avoid a surge of new coronavirus cases this fall said Dr. Anthony Fauci as long as vaccination rates continue to hit government goals.
Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC that if Americans follow the federal government’s guidance on vaccines, then he thinks large spikes in COVID-19 infection rates can be prevented.
“If we get, which we will, to the goals that the president has established, namely if we get 70% of the people vaccinated by the Fourth of July, namely one single dose, and even more thereafter, you may see blips,” said Dr. Fauci on NBC. “But if we handle them well, it is unlikely that you’ll see the kind of surge that we saw in the late fall and the early winter. That’s the reason … why we plead with people to get vaccinated, because the larger proportion of the population that’s vaccinated, the less likelihood that in a season like the coming fall or winter you’re going to see a significant surge. There’s no doubt about that.”
Dr. Fauci said America has had “practically a nonexistent flu season this year” because of people getting used to wearing face masks and coverings. In the future, he argued, mask-wearing could become a seasonal aspect of Americans’ lives.
“So it is conceivable that, as we go on a year or two or more from now, that during certain seasonal periods when you have respiratory borne viruses like the flu, people might actually elect to wear masks to diminish the likelihood that you’ll spread these respiratory borne diseases,” said Dr. Fauci on NBC.
Dr. Fauci also said that he had “no doubt” the United States had been undercounting the number of COVID-19 deaths.
