Dr. Kavita Patel predicted that the fourth of July will mark “a turning point or turning point” in the fight against Covid for the United States.
“If we get this herd immunity … we will be able to suppress the activity of this virus to the levels we see with the flu virus,” Patel told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” Thursday evening . “Moving from a pandemic and a kind of global emergency to an endemic one where it’s just a regular part of what we’re dealing with is something we can fully expect,” the former Obama administration policy aide added.
While his prediction was in line with President Biden’s goal of getting the nation to have some semblance of normalcy on Independence Day, he noted that regular reinforcements or Covid vaccines are likely to be needed to move forward, especially as transmissible variants propagate.
Pfizer released new data from Israel, suggesting that its two-shot vaccine is approximately 97% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid cases and 94% effective against asymptomatic cases. The analysis further showed high levels of protection against the highly transmissible variant B.1.1.7 of the United Kingdom, which has also spread to the United States.
As of Friday morning, one in ten Americans has been completely vaccinated and, in total, more than 98 million doses have been administered nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency also reported that 62% of all Americans age 65 and older have received at least one dose and nearly a third of them have been completely vaccinated.
Patel expects the Food and Drug Administration to fully approve Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Modern vaccines “soon,” especially as more data accumulates. All of the United States has been cleaned up by emergency.