Fauci: ‘COVID Is Not Done with the United States’

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “All In” that COVID was not done with the United States.

Anchor Chris Hayes said, “I want you to tell me what you think when you read about people being done with COVID. I get that. I think we all do. Like, no one wants to be an epidemic indefinitely. My fear is that done with COVID. It has meant people are just done with it, meaning I’m not getting my kid vaccinated. I’m not getting boosted. I’m not a 90 vaccine person. I’m not someone who’s got some weird obsession with how Doctor Fauci is like the worst person in the world; I’m just done. And that’s my fear is that that it is exhaustion is going to break us off at a point that is not sufficient to get the immunity of what we need.”

Fauci said, “Right. I think your concern is justifiable, Chris — that when people say done with COVID, done with COVID means you want to get back to normality, to the extent that you can. But the fact is, you’ll get back to normality when you have a certain percentage of people who have immunity. That immunity could either be infection, and hopefully, people would get a booster after, even though you get a good degree of protection from prior infection, but if you really want to get the epidemic behind you, put it in the rearview mirror, just saying you’re done with COVID. You may be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with the United States, nor is COVID done with the world. We’ve got to do what it takes to get it to be done. But unfortunately, as you’ve given the statistics about the number of people boosted, we’ve just gotta do better to get people boosted. The protection is profound with boosting.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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