White House medical adviser outlines stages for ending the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House's medical advisor, believes the world will soon overcome the Covid-19 pandemic, but that this will require several stages.
According to Dr. Fauci, the first phase is the "pandemic" phase, and it's happening almost everywhere in the world. The next phase, which everyone is hoping for, is the "decline" in the number of infections. However, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon in the US, given that the number of Covid-19 cases in the country is still showing signs of increasing.
"It will be very difficult, at least in the near future, to actually eradicate this highly contagious virus," Fauci said on October 13.
 |
| Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House medical advisor. Photo: AP |
According to CBS, the expert also stated that the primary goal remains achieving a certain level of control over the pandemic. This means that while the coronavirus can still spread, it will not severely disrupt society, and activities can essentially return to normal.
Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that although the US has passed the most recent peak of the pandemic, it is still not completely under control of the coronavirus, as the number of new infections in the country remains much higher than during the spring and summer of last year.
However, the White House Medical Advisor avoided mentioning the implementation of drastic measures to control the number of Covid-19 infections. He argued that simply keeping the number of new daily infections below 10,000 would be sufficient to help the US control the pandemic.
To achieve that level of control, Americans have no choice but to get vaccinated. According to Dr. Fauci, even though more than 187 million Americans have already been vaccinated.Covid-19 vaccineHowever, domestic authorities still need to make more efforts to ensure that younger population groups can be vaccinated.
Currently, the vaccination rate for those under 40 in the US remains very low compared to older age groups. In addition, 66 million eligible Americans have yet to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
"There should be no doubt that we can control the pandemic. This is entirely within our authority and capabilities," Fauci affirmed.
The expert also stated that the next phase toward ending the Covid-19 pandemic will be "elimination," something the US has achieved with polio and measles in the past.
The final stage will be "eradication," but according to Fauci, only smallpox is currently considered a disease that has been completely eradicated worldwide.
