“We are dangerously close,” said the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “You will be in a situation where you will have to make very difficult decisions.”
Fauci told CNN’s Jim Acosta that the best way to prevent health care workers from having to make these difficult decisions is to “stop doing everything possible to prevent new infections.”
Fauci noted that masking is important, but the “vaccination is the number one” method to reduce hospitalizations.
A federal medical team arrived in Kentucky this weekend to help increase medical care and the ability to open more hospital beds in light of record cases of coronavirus and hospitalizations, according to a statement from Governor Andy’s office Beshear.
“Our situation is dire,” Beshear told NBC on Sunday on “Meet the Press.” “It hits us very, very hard, but we’ll keep fighting. When you’re at war, you can’t cry for what you can or can’t do. You have to do your very best every day because this is a battle of life against death.”
Beshear said he sent the National Guard to the most affected hospitals in the state to work on logistics and release doctors to care for patients.
In Albany, Georgia, director of emergency services at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, Dr. James Black, told CNN’s Amara Walker on Saturday that her hospital nearly doubled its ICU capacity, but it is still facing an overflow of patients.
“The emergency department is full and the hospital is full,” Black said. “Whenever a patient is discharged, we have patients waiting in those beds.”
Modern can lag behind Pfizer in the booster launch
With the spread of the highly transmissible, life-altering Delta variant in the United States, officials and health experts are working to administer a booster dose of vaccine to Americans.
President Joe Biden had planned to launch booster doses for Pfizer and Moderna at the same time, but Fauci told CNN Sunday that it might not happen.
Fauci said vaccine maker Pfizer has sent its information to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that the information has been examined and “things look like they’re ready.”
But, he said Moderna could be a bit behind Pfizer, and if so, instead of seeing a simultaneous release of both products, it would be a sequential release of about a week or two.
“I don’t think it’s a major problem there, but we would have liked to see it happen simultaneously. But eventually the plan will be implemented, as outlined,” Fauci said.
The plan is subject, first, to companies submitting appropriate data to the FDA and, second, to obtaining FDA approval and then a recommendation from vaccine advisors at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. , he said.
With the possible temporal discrepancy, researchers are studying whether different types of Covid-19 vaccines can be mixed and combined.
“We’re aligning Pfizer against Pfizer, Pfizer for Modern and vice versa,” Fauci told Weijia Jiang on Sunday’s CBS network’s “Face the Nation”. “We hope that in a reasonable period of time, measured in a couple of weeks, we will have this data.”
Fauci said I hope it will work that people who get Pfizer will increase with Pfizer, and people who get Moderna will increase with Moderna.
“But we’re doing the studies to determine if you can … switch with each other,” he said.
“Surround children with vaccinated people,” Fauci says
Although experts have highlighted vaccination as a key measure of protection against the virus, children under 12 are not yet eligible for vaccines, making adult decisions even more important for their safety. .
“The way to protect children who, due to their age, cannot yet be vaccinated, is to surround the children, whether they are friends, family, school teachers, school staff, and surround the children of vaccinated people, “Fauci told CNN. .
“Washington schools have the structure, the protocol, and the people to have a successful face-to-face education,” Shah said.
If the U.S. wants to keep kids in the classroom this school year, people have to wear masks, Fauci added. But while some areas have adopted mask and vaccine mandates, others have slowed those measures.
In Kentucky, Beshear said he was limited in what he could do because state officials opposed his attempt at a school mask warrant.
“If we had the chance to do it right now, we would have a storage order when it was in public and indoors. We know it’s a proven way to slow the spread of the virus and ultimately help our ability. health care, ”Beshear said. NBC Sunday.
CNN’s John Bonifield, Elizabeth Joseph and Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.