Le Fauci warned that the coronavirus had gotten out of hand and that in January everything could get worse – Telam

Fauci warned the coronavirus was out of control and that in January everything could get worse

US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has been vaccinated against the coronavirus while senior government epidemiologist Anthony Fauci admitted the number of vaccinated so far is ten times less than expected and warned that the pandemic has gotten out of control and it could get worse in January.

The United States “is certainly not among the numbers we wanted to be in by the end of December” in terms of people vaccinated against the coronavirus, said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergic and Infectious Diseases.

He later warned that the situation “has gotten out of hand” in the United States and that January could be worse than December.

“What worries me the most is that we are going to have an increase in cases, which could make January even worse than December; I hope that does not happen, but it is certainly possible”, a assessed the press release specialist tonight on CNN. .

“I think we have to assume that everything is going to get worse,” he synthesized.

Regarding the vaccines given so far, Fauci said that “we are definitely not in the numbers we wanted to be at the end of December”.

So far, more than 11.4 million vaccines have been distributed and 2,127,143 Americans have already received their first dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as cited by the ANSA news agency.

The government, which began mass vaccination in the country hardest hit by the plague this month, had said its target was for 20 million people to be vaccinated by the end of December.

But yesterday morning, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that only two million residents had received the first dose of one of two already licensed vaccines.

“Even if one underestimated the numbers, two million underestimated… how much can they be underestimated?”, Fauci also told CNN.

“I think as we go into January, we will see an increase” in the number of vaccinated, he continued.

The CDC said yesterday that 11.4 million doses of the vaccine had already been distributed nationwide and the government has approved emergency use of those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna laboratories.

Health workers and residents of nursing homes are the first to be vaccinated.

Since the country began its vaccination campaign on December 14, several of the most senior officials in the institutional hierarchy have been vaccinated, including Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.

President-elect Joe Biden got vaccinated at a televised event last week, as did Harris, who said he felt no discomfort and recommended as many of the population as possible to do so.

The United States is currently going through its worst peak in infections since the start of its epidemic and yesterday reached a new record of 121,235 hospitalized patients, reported the specialized platform Covid Tracking Project.

The occupancy rate of intensive care beds fell from 16% in September to 40% last week, and authorities fear a “surge in rising cases” following vacation trips and meetings.

The world’s leading power has already racked up more than 19.3 million infections, including 168,817 recorded in the past 24 hours, Johns Hopkins University reported.

Another 1,718 people died during the same period, bringing the total number of deaths to over 334,800.