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Dr. Fauci Just Issued This Big Warning for Fall
'We're going to have to act with public health effort.'
By Alek Korab
During a week in which coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million worldwide, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke to ABC's David Muir on World News Tonight about how we can take control of the disease. Read on to hear his warning for fall, and to ensure your health, and the health of others, don't miss these Sure Signs You've Already Had Coronavirus.
On Whether Kids Should Go Back to School
"It's a mixed bag in some respects because we live in a pretty large country that has differences in different parts of the country. I think as a default position, we should try to the best of our ability to get the children back to school for the reasons that we're familiar with—about the negative consequences psychologically and otherwise on kids—as well as the spinoff type of a downstream ripple effects on families. Having said that as a default principle, there's a 'however' there—the 'however' is that we've always got to make our primary consideration, the health, the safety, and the welfare of the children and of the teachers. Now having said that if you look at the country, there are parts of the country where the level of infection is really quite low and has been maintained is quite low under those circumstances. I think you can't compare them to other parts of the country."
On Those Photos of Georgia Students Not Wearing Masks
"Should all students in this country be wearing masks? There should be universal wearing of masks. There should be to the extent possible social distancing, avoiding crowds, outdoors always better than indoors and being in a situation where you continually have the capability of washing your hands and cleaning up with sanitizers. When I see sites like that, it is disturbing to me. I feel that universal wearing a mask is one of five or six things that are very important in preventing the upsurge of infection. And in turning around the infections that we are seeing surge."
On His Warning for Fall and Flu Season
"If we do not do the things in a uniform way that I'm talking about…as we get into the winter and fall with the likelihood that we'd have a convergence of two respiratory diseases, we can have a very difficult time. What I'm saying is that I want to impress upon the American people in a way that's so clear. There are things that we can do that would get the level down. If we go into the fall and the winter, with the same situation that we're seeing now, where you have upticks of percent positive, and then you have the inevitable surging of infection."
On Where The Tests Are, That Trump Said Everyone Can Get
"Well, I hope they're going to be widely available soon, but we want to make sure people understand the differences that if we can have screening with those tests and leave the burden of the very accurate test, to be able to do the identification, isolation and contact tracing, those are two separate tracks and two separate pathways. And I think we can do both."
On When We'll Get a Vaccine
"I think that's part of the good news of things is that if you look at the, now at least half a dozen vaccines, that we are directly involved with, a couple of them have already last week, a week and a half ago, going into a phase three trial, which means you're determining if it is effective, as well as additional safety, the initial preliminary work on that. And phase one trial has me to be cautiously optimistic. I believe there's quite a good chance that we will. And that should take probably by the end of this calendar year with vaccine available as we go into 2021."
On How Effective the First Vaccine May Be
"The statistical analysis you'd like to show and be able to prove 50 to 60% effective. I'm hoping that we can do even better than that. I'd like to see 70, 75% or more."
On Whether COVID Will "Just Disappear"
"We could get it to be under control. If we do the things that we're talking about, it's not going to spontaneously by its own devices. We're going to have to act with public health effort. That's the way you get it. I believe it's achievable to get to a level that's quite controlled so that we can open up the country and get the economy back. If all you've got to do is look at the data, the virus is telling us what it can and will do if we don't confront it properly." And to get through this pandemic at your healthiest, don't miss these 37 Places You're Most Likely to Catch Coronavirus.
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