The US will not be back to normal until late 2021 as it faces a high number of coronavirus cases, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Dr. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, believes that the day-to-day life in the US would not get back to normal until late 2021 when a Covid-19 vaccine could be available.
His statement comes as movie theaters, gyms, and salons are opening and some states are permitting limited indoor dining.
Dr. Fauci said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that a coronavirus vaccine will likely be available by the end of this year or early 2021.
“But by the time you mobilize the distribution of the vaccine and get a majority or more of the population vaccinated and protected, that’s likely not going to happen until the end of 2021,” said the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“If you’re talking about getting back to a degree of normality prior to Covid, it’s going to be well into 2021, towards the end of 2021," he noted.
As the US reports a high level of 40,000 new infections and 1,000 deaths a day, Dr. Fauci expressed his concerns over states resuming certain indoor activities like dining.
“Being indoors absolutely increases the risk” of transmission, Dr. Fauci stressed. “I am concerned when I see things starting indoors, and that becomes more compelling when you move into the fall and winter season.”
When MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell asked Dr. Fauci about Trump’s statement on US coronavirus data, the health expert said he does not agree with him.
“I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with that because if you look at the thing that you just mentioned, the statistics, Andrea, they’re disturbing,” said Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “We’re plateauing at around 40,000 cases a day and the deaths are around 1,000,” he noted.
The number of daily new Covid-19 cases remains far lower than the peak, but the level of new cases remains troublesome, Dr. Fauci said.
“When you have a baseline of infections that are 40,000 per day and you have threats of increased test positivity in certain regions of the country, such as the Dakotas and Montana and places like that. … You don’t want to start off already with a baseline that’s so high,” he said.
Reopening restaurants
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that restaurants will reopen on Sept. 30, at 25% capacity and allow 50% capacity in November. Meanwhile, Miami-Dade restaurants will resume operations at 50% capacity at the end of August.
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Covid-19 patients who were twice as likely to report having entered a restaurant in the past two weeks.
Dr. Fauci emphasized that the safest way to allow indoor activities is to reduce community transmission to the lowest possible level.
He also mentioned that being outdoors does not provide blanket protection, either.
“Just because you’re outdoors does not that mean you’re protected, particularly if you’re in a crowd and you’re not wearing masks,” he said, referring to political rallies.
Dr. Fauci did not give more details about the University of Oxford vaccine trial, which was postponed by the drugmaker AstraZeneca this week after a participant fell ill, but did clarify that the safety board was probing the matter.
