Fauci goes against Biden's new COVID chief and says the US does NOT need to go into a six-week national lockdown because 'help is really on the way' with all Americans set to get access to a vaccine by April
Dr. Anthony Fauci says the US does not need to go into a six-week national lockdown, contradicting a proposal by President-elect Joe Biden's new COVID-19 advisor.
Biden's hire, Dr. Michael Osterholm, hit headlines on Wednesday, claiming that a lengthy lockdown may be the best way to keep hospitalizations and deaths down as the country experiences a surge in coronavirus infections.
But in an interview with Good Morning America on Thursday, Fauci stated that he does not believe such extreme action is necessary as long as people adhere to public health measures like mask-wearing, hand-washing and social distancing.
'We would like to stay away from that because there's no appetite for locking down the American public, ' Fauci told the morning news program.
'You don't necessarily have to shut everything down. The best opposite strategy to locking down is to intensify the public health measures. If you can do that well, you don't have to take that step ... which has so many implications both psychologically and economically'.
Fauci struck a hopeful tone throughout the interview, also saying that 'help is really on the way' in the form of a vaccine.
'The cavalry is coming... Vaccines are going to have a major positive impact,' he vowed.
The infectious diseases expert stated that he believes 'the ordinary citizen' should be able to access the vaccine by April of next year.
Dr. Anthony Fauci says the US does not need to go into a six-week lockdown, contradicting a proposal by President-elect Joe Biden's new COVID-19 chief, Dr. Michael Osterholm
“The best opposite strategy to locking down is to intensify the public health measures short of locking down.”
— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 12, 2020
Dr. Fauci speaks on the COVID crisis and the possibility of a second lockdown as U.S. cases soar to new records. https://t.co/U6hIuaJiY1 pic.twitter.com/FmZpA2mpWj
“The best opposite strategy to locking down is to intensify the public health measures short of locking down.”
Dr. Fauci speaks on the COVID crisis and the possibility of a second lockdown as U.S. cases soar to new records. https://t.co/U6hIuaJiY1 pic.twitter.com/FmZpA2mpWj
Later in the day, Fauci spoke to a British panel via video link, where he claimed it was unlikely a vaccine would completely eradicate the spread of COVID-19.
'Certainly it's not going to be pandemic for a lot longer because I believe the vaccines are going to turn that around,' Fauci stated.
' I doubt we're going to eradicate this, I think we need to plan that this is something we may need to maintain control over chronically. It may be something that becomes endemic that we have to just be careful about.'
Fauci's comments come as the US reports a record high number of COVID-19 infections.
On Wednesday, a staggering 144,133 new cases were reported across the country, taking the total number of infected Americans to 10.4 million.
On the same day, 1,893 citizens died from the disease - the highest number of fatalities since May 8. The US death toll now stands at 241,808.
The number of hospitalizations across the US also continues to spike to single-day highs with more than 65,000 patients currently being treated.
The alarming numbers have prompted Osterholm (Biden's new advisor) to propose plans for a strict nationwide lockdown.
On Wednesday, he told CNBC: 'We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers for losses to small companies to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments. We could do all of that. If we did that, then we could lockdown for four-to-six weeks.'
Osterholm suggested Wednesday that such a lockdown would bring the US in line with the likes of New Zealand and Australia where new daily cases have been reduced to under ten cases.
However, a new Gallup poll reveals more than half of surveyed Americans say they won't comply with another long-term lockdown
Infections across the country hit a record high of 144,133 cases on Wednesday. New cases have continued to soar to all-time highs of more than 120,000 per day over the past week
The US death toll spiked to 1,893 on Wednesday, which is the highest number of fatalities since May 8 during the initial peak of the outbreak. The average number of deaths, which are a lagging indicator and can potentially rise weeks after infections, are still down from the peak 2,000 fatalities recorded per day in the spring
This graph shows infection rates in key US states as compared to major countries in Western Europe, with Wisconsin currently seeing a higher infection rate than France, Spain or Britain
Cases are currently on the rise in 49 states and deaths are climbing in 39.
Midwestern states, including North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, are currently seeing a surge in fatalities - weeks after cases and hospitalizations started to spike in those regions.
According to Bloomberg's Steven Dennis 'about 1 out of every 1,500 people in South Dakota is currently in hospital with COVID-19'.
The state's governor, Kristi Noem, has been vehemently opposed to lockdowns.
Meanwhile, other states also reported grim milestones on Wednesday.
Texas became the first state with more than 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases. California follows closely behind with more than 984,000 cases.
Cases are also rising at an alarming rate in the northeast, where officials boasted about flattening the coronavirus curve just a few short months ago.
In New York City, the average positivity rate reached 2.5 percent on Wednesday.
Coronavirus patients occupy the greatest percentage of hospital beds of any states in North and South Dakota, Health and Human Services data shows, though it tends to lag and North Dakota now says its hospitals are at 100% capacity as of Wednesday
The number of hospitalizations across the US also continues to spike to single-day highs with more than 65,000 patients currently being treated
The news prompted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to announce he was pulling back the opening hours of bars, restaurants and gyms to 10pm daily.
'If these measures aren't sufficient to reduce the spread — we'll turn the valve more and part of that would be reducing the number of people indoor dining,' Cuomo stated at a press conference.
Meanwhile, New York City public schools will be completely shut down if the city reaches a 3 percent positivity rate.
The system currently has more than 1.1 million students who would be forced to return to remote learning until the numbers improve.
In neighboring New Jersey, cases are also continuing to rise. On Wednesday, the state reported 3,078 new infections.
Gov. Phil Murphy told NBC's Today on Thursday that a second wave of the virus is 'definitely upon us' and 'everything is heading in the wrong direction'.
In a similar move to Gov Cuomo, Gov. Murphy has ordered all restaurants, bars, clubs and lounges to stop indoor dining by 10pm. He is also banning all interstate games and tournaments for indoor K-12 sports.
More than half of Americans say they WON'T comply with another lockdown
More than half of Americans say it's likely they won't comply with another month-long lockdown despite 61% believing that the virus is getting worse, according to a new Gallup poll.
Only 49% said they would be very likely to abide by new lockdown restrictions.
In comparison, 67% said they would shelter-in-place when the pandemic began in late March and early April.
The poll shows that 33% of Americans would be very or somewhat unlikely to comply with another lockdown.
About 18% said they would be somewhat likely to follow advice for health officials.
Even though a third of the respondents say they are less likely to abide by new lockdown restrictions if any are implemented, the majority of the participants revealed that they believe the outbreak is only going to get worse.
A total of 61% of Americans believe the situation is getting worse compared to 40% in April.
