Fauci insists COVID has not passed for hours after saying US is ‘out of pandemic phase’

Dr. Anthony Fauci made his final U-turn by insisting that the U.S. hadn’t emerged a few hours after claiming the COVID epidemic had emerged from the pandemic stage.

The White House COVID Wed said his comments on Tuesday evening – recorded and reported verbatim – were “misinterpreted” in a follow-up interview on Wednesday.

“We certainly cannot say that the pandemic is over. It’s not over yet,” said Fauci, chief medical adviser to CBS News, President Joe Biden Wednesday afternoon.

Fauci, who is famous for his flip-flops on things like masks, declined to comment further on how his previous comments were misunderstood – although they seem to directly contradict his “fix”.

Instead, he made it clear that the COVID threat in the United States is not “acute and accelerated” as it was at the start of the pandemic, and that the nation is in danger. The new ‘delayed and controlled’ phase of the pandemic in recent months.

“This doesn’t mean we’re out of danger,” he said, adding that the number of COVID-positive cases is starting to “scan” again.

The comments Fauci saw on the flip-flops were broadcast by the PBS News Hour on Tuesday night.

“We are now definitely out of the pandemic phase in this country,” he said.

“900,000 new infections a day and no tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. Now we are at a low level.’

“We certainly can’t say the epidemic is over,” Facui said on Wednesday afternoon, although he said Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, Fauci urged Americans to remain vigilant and warned citizens to be vigilant and prepared for spikes and new COVID variants should they occur.

He also stressed that the United States should “avoid a new surge in hospital admissions.”

Despite his warnings – a full turn of events from Tuesday’s comments – Fauci pointed out that improved treatments and vaccines put the US in a much better position than other still-standing countries such as China and Hong Kong. .

He also drew attention to Paxlovid, an antiviral drug developed by Pfizer and used in the treatment of COVID, and said that he believes it will make a big difference in fighting the virus once it becomes easily accessible.

Designed to keep high-risk COVID patients out of the hospital, the pill reduces the risk of serious illness by up to 90%.

Vice President Kamala Harris is currently recruiting Paxlovid to manage her symptoms after receiving positive PCR and rapid tests. The COVID diagnosis was announced on Tuesday evening.

America now has 54,840 COVID infections every day, 45% more than last week, but more than 90% less than the virus’ peak of 800,000 per day

The daily death toll fell 14% last week to 363 per day.

The United States averages 54,840 infections per day, only 6% of the virus peaking at 800,000 cases per day in mid-January.

Fauci said on Tuesday that the United States is “coming out of the pandemic phase” of COVID as the number of cases and hospitalizations continues to decline.

“We’re at a low level right now,” said the immunologist, who has been lobbying for draconian measures of masks and vaccines for the past two years.

But he warned that the virus cannot be completely eradicated and long-term vaccination programs may need to be continued annually.

“So if you say we got out of the pandemic phase in this country, we did. What we hope to do, I don’t think – and I’ve talked a lot about it – we won’t be able to get rid of this virus,” he said.

“If we can keep that level really low and vaccinate people intermittently – and I don’t know how often that has to happen.

It could be every year to keep it low, it could be longer. But right now, we are not in the pandemic period in this country.

“Pandemic means a worldwide infection that spreads rapidly among humans. So if you look at the global situation, there is no doubt that this pandemic is still going on,” he said.

Fauci, whose comments are embedded at the end of the PBS NewsHour interview (pictured), caused some confusion by saying at home on Tuesday that the “pandemic phase” was over but “still continuing worldwide”.

Fauci, whose comments were buried at the end of the PBS NewsHour interview, caused confusion by saying that the “pandemic phase” at home was over but “still continuing worldwide”.

Health experts questioned his claim, noting that he seemed to have confused his word choice and should have simply said, “The United States is in the phase of fewer hospitalizations.”

America currently has 54,840 COVID infections per day, 45% more than last week, but more than 90% less than the virus’ peak of 800,000 per day. The daily death toll fell 14% last week to 363 per day.

On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said about 60 percent of Americans are infected with COVID.

Officials cautioned that these data do not mean that Americans are immune to the virus due to previous infections.

COVID restrictions have been lifted almost everywhere in America. One of the few remaining missions is in New York City, where residents are still required to wear masks on the subway, public buses, and at the airport.

Masks are also mandatory on public transport in Los Angeles. Philadelphia reduced the order of masks for four days last week, and they removed them again almost instantly.

Children under the age of five in the New York City public school system are still subject to “close contact restrictions”, including wearing masks, an awkward break from the rest of the city where there is no mask requirement. Virologists generally agree that the risk of children becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid is extremely low.

While children are less likely than adults to be hospitalized or die from COVID, the CDC reported on Tuesday that 475 children under the age of five in the United States have died from the disease.

There is no vaccine yet for this age group, so it won’t be over until the pandemic is found, which could take several months.

The federal government’s National Masking Order for Public Transport, Commercial Flights and Transportation Centers was rejected by a federal judge earlier this month.

The CDC also revised its face coverage guidelines in February, recommending that indoor masking should remain only for communities deemed at high risk for Covid and mandating masking at large public gatherings as sporting events are no longer in effect.