Fauci: Omicron “confident” of the United States will soon reach a maximum even if hospitals fight Antoni Fauci

U.S. authorities are confident that most states will soon reach and overcome a maximum number of cases of Omicron coronavirus variants, even as hospitals struggle to cope with the current increase, the chief medical officer said on Sunday. Joe Biden.

“I think [we’re] as safe as you can be, “Anthony Fauci told ABC’s This Week.” You never want to be overconfident when you’re dealing with this virus, because it’s certainly surprised us in the past.

“But if we look at the patterns we’ve seen in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Israel, and [US] northeast and New England and upper midwestern states, have peaked and begun to fall quite sharply.

“There are still some southern states and western states that continue to grow, but if the pattern follows the trend we’re seeing elsewhere … I think you’ll start to see a turnaround across the country.”

Fauci also predicted “a little more pain and suffering with hospitalizations in those areas of the country that have not been completely vaccinated or have not received reinforcements.”

But, he said, “we know, and these are the recent data that has come out, that even with Omicron, augmentation makes an important and important difference in protecting you from hospitalization and serious outcomes.

“So things are looking good. We don’t want to be overconfident. But they seem to be going in the right direction right now.”

More than 865,000 people have died in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic.

Fauci said Omicron “seems” to be causing a less serious illness than other variants, although “it is by no means exempt from making people sick and hospitalized, especially those who are not vaccinated.” .

This relative lack of seriousness, he said, helped efforts to control Covid.

“Control means that you are not eliminating it, you are not eradicating it, but it is reduced to such a low level that it is essentially integrated into the general respiratory infections with which we have learned to live.

“I mean, we wish they weren’t there, but they are there. But they do not disturb society. They are not afraid of serious serious results. You will always get some serious results with respiratory infections. Even in a good pre-Covid era, you’ve always had it. We would like it to go down to that level where it does not disturb us, in the sense of returning to a certain degree of normalcy.

“This is the best case scenario. We have to be prepared for the worst case scenario. , such as a high degree of transmissibility or a high degree of virulence. ”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 75.5% of eligible Americans have received at least one dose of vaccination and 63.3% are considered fully vaccinated. However, only 39.7% (or 53.2% of those eligible) had booster injections.

Further reinforcements could be recommended, Fauci said, once it is known how long a third injection of an mRNA vaccine or a second of a single Johnson & Johnson vaccine will take.

“You’ll certainly see antibody levels go down,” he said. “This is natural, but … it’s quite conceivable, and I hope it’s true, that the momentum of the third shot will give a much greater durability of protection. We are following it very carefully.

“And when I say protection, I mean protection against serious disease. You’ll see innovative infections as we’ve seen now, even in potentiated people, but for the most part, they’re mild or even asymptomatic.”

Fauci also said Covid’s test supplies still needed to be improved. The rise of Omicron has coincided with issues that the Biden administration is trying to address, including offering free trial at home.

Fauci was asked if it was safe to send children to school without a mask, in states where mandates are being withdrawn, often due to political pressure.

“We want the kids back in school,” he said. “And the way you do it, … surround the children with people who are vaccinated. For children who can be vaccinated, vaccinate them and provide masks … as well as ventilation to make sure you can get a respiratory infection at its lowest level of infectivity.

“All of these things go together and masking is part of that.”