Fauci: Prematurely Pulling Back COVID-19 Measures Could Endanger Biden’s July 4th Prediction
Anthony Fauci on Sunday said President Joe Biden’s prediction that coronavirus vaccines can lead to relative normalcy by July Fourth is “quite reasonable” — as long as states don’t prematurely pull back public safety measures.
“If you wait just a bit longer to give the vaccine program the chance to increase the protection in the community, then it makes pulling back much less risky,” said Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, on “Fox News Sunday.” “But if you do it prematurely there really is a danger of triggering another surge.”
Fauci expressed concerns that plateaus in levels of infection are often followed by surges.
“When you see [infections] plateauing at a level of anywhere between 50,000 and 65,000 cases a day, that is absolutely no time to declare victory, because we know from previous surges that we’ve had over the year that when you see that leveling off at a high level, there’s always the risk of a surge back up,” Fauci said. “And in fact, unfortunately, that is exactly what’s happening in Europe right now.”
