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EXCLUSIVE: America’s Leading Infectious Disease Expert Talks With TheGrio On Prospects For Pandemic And Correcting Coronavirus Evolution
Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is one of the world’s leading immunologists, serving at the NIH Institute since 1984.
Dr Fauci has become a voice of cautious reasoning amid the calamity of the Trump administration’s handling of the novel coronavirus, and theGrio spoke with him exclusively to discuss the outlook for the pandemic, the steps needed to reduce coronavirus peaks, and much more.
Fauci, originally from Brooklyn, New York, has been a public health official for much of his adult life and continues to be zealous in explaining the myriad levels of infectious disease and how modern society should best contain them. .
Read more: Fauci: Trump hasn’t attended meeting on virus in months, better work with Biden
When asked where the nation stands when it comes to our handling of the pandemic and how best to move forward, Fauci didn’t mince words
“Well, we’re in a very precarious situation in that if you look at the slope, the trajectory of the curve that is now going up in what I would consider the third wave that we had – the first one, as you know. remember. , was at the very beginning of spring in the northeastern part of the country, dominated by the New York metropolitan area, ”said Fauci theGrio.
“It went down a bit. And then when we try to reopen the country, reopen the economy at the start of the summer, we had another slope that went up and took the benchmark of infections to a high level. And now we have a really strong surge as we move into the colder months of fall and winter to the point where records are broken.
Read more: Dr Fauci says virus vaccine could be available to all Americans by April
For the first time since May, the United States has reported 2,000 deaths in one day from complications of COVID-19 as a result of the coronavirus, which Fauci noted during the chat. He went on to explain that the record number of deaths is indeed staggering, but believes Americans and others with these conditions around the world can turn the tide if everyone invests in simple strategies.
“We have had a quarter of a million deaths in total, a little more, more than 12 million cases approaching [and]13 million cases [with] more than 80,000 hospitalizations. This is a bad situation. We know, however, that this is not a hopeless situation, ”added Fauci.
“We know that when you implement basic public health measures, such as wearing masks, maintaining a uniform distance, avoiding crowds in places of assembly, especially frequent hand washing in the workplace. inside, you can get that curve to flatten out and start to go down.
“Because we know we’ve seen places internationally and nationally, some cities, some cities that have done this, that you see you can make an impact on that in the context of all this really serious challenge. very short term vaccines, ”continued Fauci.
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A quick glance at the clinical trials website reveals that more than 4,000 studies are underway on the coronavirus and that there have been a number of breakthroughs, as highlighted in the effectiveness of three vaccines that have made the headlines in recent weeks, offering some measure of hope for the public wanting to return to normal.
Fauci further explained that the announcement of the Modern, Pfizer, Oxford-Astrazeneca and their promising results are showing “very effective in preventing clinical infections”, adding cautiously, “if we are to do anything with this surge that we are in, let it be an incentive for us to pay attention to the messages. public health, because help is on the way. I am convinced that if we do it right, we can do it. But what is happening now is really very serious.
Dr Fauci’s messages of hope juxtaposed with grim warnings about what could happen if simple protocols and basic public health measures were not observed were also complemented by a somewhat optimistic message and directive, while being careful not to compare America’s unique situation with this. other nations – namely Taiwan, Singapore and New Zealand – which flattened the curve.
“There are so many advantages to having the United States of America, where each individual state, according to federalist philosophy, can have some degree of independence. But when you are dealing with an epidemic that affects the whole country, you better have some consistency in your response so that the country as a whole can move in the right direction, ”Fauci replied to a question about an approach. best practices. .
“New Zealand did it right, but it was okay for them. We are not New Zealand. We are not a small island with a few people. We have a very large country with demographic, geographic and meteorological diversity. “
“We are facing a public health problem and the enemy is the virus. The enemy is not the person who wears a mask or not. The enemy is the virus, ”Fauci said, stressing that ideological and political differences should not obscure the fact that this virus has caused and will continue to cause harm to the public if collaboration and common sense are not applied.
Fauci shared figures from reported data that African American and Latino patients infected with the coronavirus are affected by several socio-economic factors far worse than those of white patients in terms of treatment and recovery, calling the prospects for public health of these underserved groups. In so many words.
However, he was clear in stating that a timeline for a widespread vaccine for all Americans would be impossible to determine, but he is confident that leaders and other officials will lead the charge properly.
TheGrio’s full interview with Dr Anthony Fauci will take place at 9 a.m. on Saturday on theGrio’s Facebook, YouTube and OTT.
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The message that Dr Fauci and Byron Allen are talking about the prospects of the COVID-19 pandemic for black America appeared first on TheGrio.
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