Fauci says he’s stunned some people are calling COVID outbreak ‘fake news’

Even as health officials across the country work to curb the growing resurgence of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths recorded over the past month, there are still Americans who do not want to comply with mitigation orders.

Dr.Anthony Fauci, a leading American disease specialist, noted the public opposition’s health mandates that persist in November, more than eight months after the start of the national COVID-19 epidemic, during a recent interview with Kaiser Health News.

“I was stunned that in some parts of the country, even though the devastation of the epidemic is clear, some people continue to say that this is fake news,” Fauci said. “It’s a very difficult thing to overcome: why people still insist that something that looks you straight in the face is not real.”

Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health for more than three decades and was appointed to Donald Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force earlier this year. Despite the sitting president’s attitude to COVID-19 – which has come with reluctant support for face covers; unsubstantiated claims of medical treatment; an unrealistic vaccination schedule; and the general prioritization of economic reopening over risk reduction – Fauci has repeatedly warned of declining mitigation practices and has spoken candidly about their likely consequences.

Its warning messages materialized as legitimate statistics with the start of the fall, when COVID-19 cases started to climb again in areas that previously lowered their transmission rates, and suddenly spiked in more rural places. which had originally experienced less severe epidemics. In late November, the United States is confirming new COVID-19 infections in staggering numbers and diagnosing them at record rates.

At least 12.1 million people have tested positive for respiratory disease across the country since the pandemic began, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University Sunday. About 3 million of these cases have been confirmed in the past three weeks. Faced with a surge in hospitalizations and an increase in the number of COVID-19-related deaths, various state leaders have implemented new restrictions or renewed previous restrictions intended to further slow the spread in recent weeks.

Along with them, pockets of public resistance seen in response to stay-at-home orders in the early months of the outbreak also resurfaced. In Utah, protesters reportedly gathered to oppose the state’s face protection order earlier this month. A video shared on Twitter on Sunday showed several people waiting to board a flight departing from Salt Lake City International Airport without face masks.

Fauci’s discussion of confusing public resistance to mitigation measures, such as face masks, came amid a larger conversation about a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, when it will be available to the general public. and how many people will choose to use it.

During an appearance on CBS News’ Face the nation On Sunday morning, he stressed the importance of large-scale vaccination to manage the spread of the virus.

“If you have a very effective vaccine and only 40 or 50 percent of people are vaccinated, you won’t get the herd immunity you need,” Fauci said. “What we need is that we need to get as many people vaccinated as possible.”

Appearing to acknowledge the reluctance of some Americans who say they would not get a COVID-19 vaccine if it became available, the health expert also noted that people should feel “assured” that a candidate for vaccination is safe and effective to use once it receives approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Newsweek contacted NIAID for further comments, but did not receive a response in time for publication.