President Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, tells “Axios on HBO” that despite the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, emerging variants could be a “reef” and Americans should not be pleased.
Driving the news: The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases also shared his views on contemplating his own mortality, working with Biden and talking to teachers about returning to school before getting vaccinated. to everyone.
Fauci cried out for suffering and the death of the last “impressive” months, with January and December, the worst months since the beginning. “The number of cases ranged from 300,000 to 400,000 daily,” he said. “The death toll was between 3,000 and 4,000 per day.”
- While “things are going in the right direction … they will also see us challenged by the emergence of variants or mutants that have appeared, some of which have a functional influence on how we respond to them,” he said. dit. “Fortunately, others are well covered by the vaccine, but not all.”
- “You don’t want people to be pleased. We still have a long way to go … We could still have a stumbling block with the emergence of variants that would dominate the image.”
The other side: Fauci, who has been vaccinated, expressed her optimism so that as they receive more American doses, vaccinated friends or family can finally get together as they would like.
- “Can I get my daughter down from Boston, which I haven’t seen in a long time?” He said. “Can I sit down to dinner with her without worrying about the spread of the infection? Can I give her a big hug the way I would like to? I think the answer will ultimately be yes, but I think we’ll wait to see what show recommendations. “
When talking to teachers, Fauci said, “You have to understand them and empathize with them a lot, because they have a concern for their own safety, so you can’t minimize that.”
- “You also have to fight for resources to allow schools to open safely. So the supply of masks, good ventilation, good seat spacing, all of these things together will make schools open safely. . “
- He said of his job of offering guidance to all Americans: “Sometimes it’s humble because you have to make a decision based on incomplete data.”
Fauci, 80, said he was facing his fears that the virus could get it, especially during Donald Trump’s presidency.
- “I didn’t pay attention to that, but it was in my head because I had to be out there,” he said. “I mean, mostly, when I went to the White House every day, when the White House was kind of a very widespread place.”
- He said he promised to tell truths to any president, but now he is not so stressed because Biden is “very attached to the concept of ‘scientific rules’ and act on what the data tells you and the scientific evidence to do.” .
The summary: Fauci said he is aware that for some he is a cultural icon, while others have made threats against him and his family, but he tries to block them and stay focused on the pandemic. “Right now, my responsibility is from a scientific point of view to do everything I can to end this.”