Washington:
Despite the rising number of cases and record high hospitalizations from Covid-19, the United States is approaching the “threshold” of transitioning to living with the coronavirus as a manageable disease, Anthony Fauci said Tuesday.
Speaking to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the top US scientist said eliminating Covid was unrealistic and that “Omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency in portability, will eventually find just about everyone.”
“We are not going to eradicate this virus in any way,” he said, given its contagiousness, its tendency to mutate into new variants and the large pool of unvaccinated people.
Those who are up to date with their vaccines remain well protected against serious consequences, but the vaccine’s effectiveness against infection has declined.
But “if Omicron goes up and down,” the country will hopefully enter a new phase “where there will be enough protection in (the) community, enough drugs available so that when someone gets infected and is in a high-risk group, it will be very easy.” to treat that person,” Fauci said.
“When we get there, there’s that transition, and maybe we’re on the brink of that now,” he said, while also stressing that the country is currently registering nearly a million infections a day, nearly 150,000 people hospitalized. and more than 1,200 daily deaths, “we’re not at that point yet.”
Official data showed that there are currently 145,982 Covid hospitalizations, although a significant percentage is believed to be hospitalized “with” the disease rather than because of the illness.
Earlier, the 81-year-old director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases criticized vaccine skeptic Republican Senator Rand Paul for unleashing “mad men” who threatened his life and harassed his family, in unusually emotional congressional testimony.
President Joe Biden’s top officials, including his chief medical adviser Fauci, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walenksy, and acting chief of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Janet Woodcock, were summoned to appear before testify to the Senate about the pandemic.
While many fellow lawmakers focused their questions on the lack of adequate testing and confusing new guidelines about how infected people should end their isolation, Paul, who spoke out against vaccine mandates and refused to be vaccinated, said Fauci was personally responsible for the death of people.
Paul accused Fauci of hundreds of thousands of deaths that have occurred since Biden took office — even though the vast majority of those fatalities had not been vaccinated and health officials, including Fauci, have consistently advocated vaccines.
‘Wake up the madmen’
“You attack me personally and with absolutely not a shred of evidence of whatever you say,” Fauci replied.
“Suddenly that ignites the crazies out there and I have life threats on my life, intimidation of my family and my children with obscene phone calls.”
Fauci recalled that in late December, a man was arrested on his way from California to the capital Washington, armed with an AR-15 assault weapon and multiple rounds of ammunition.
The man said he wanted to kill Fauci because what he said was blood on the hands of the scientists.
Fauci then waved a printout of Paul’s website with the “Fire Dr Fauci” banner next to an invitation to donate to the Republican campaign.
Although Omicron causes severe cases at a slower rate than Delta, it reaches more people because of its extreme infectiousness.
As of Dec. 27, the vaccine’s age-adjusted efficacy against hospitalization was 92 percent, according to New York state data.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)