Will US see more lockdowns in future? Dr Anthony Fauci says no but warns ‘things are going to get worse’

Washington, August 01, 2021: US President Joe Biden’s top medical advisor Dr Anthony Fauci on Sunday said that while the US is not likely to see more lockdowns, “some pain and suffering” still lie ahead for the country due to the growing number of infections in the country. The remarks from Dr Fauci came even as the risk of infections due to the Delta variant remains higher in the country.

“I dont think we are going to see lockdowns. I think we have enough of the percentage of people in the country, not enough to crush the outbreak, but I believe enough to not allow us to get into the situation we were in last winter,” Fauci said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

However, he further said that the number of infections was increasing in the country, especially among people who were yet to be vaccinated against the disease. Further, the expert also stressed the high number of people who are eligible for vaccination but are not yet immunised.

“But things are going to get worse. If you look at the acceleration of the number of cases, the seven-day average has gone up substantially,” Fauci said. “We say it over and over again and it’s the truth, we have 100 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not getting vaccinated. We are seeing an outbreak of the unvaccinated,” he added. While there have been cases of breakthrough infection, he said that they were mostly mild illness or asymptomatic. “There are some breakthrough infections among the vaccinated. You would expect that because no vaccine is 100% effective. But in the breakthrough infections they are mostly mild or without symptoms whereas the unvaccinated who have a much much much greater chance of getting infected in the first place are the ones that are vulnerable to getting severe illness that might lead to hospitalisation and in some cases death,” he further said.

Dr Fauci emphasised again that vaccination is the solution to the issue of increasing infections. “So we are looking not, I believe, to lockdown but we are looking to some pain and suffering in the future because we are seeing the cases go up. Which is the reason why we keep saying over and over again the solution to this is get vaccinated and this would not be happening,” he added.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) too had said that vaccination reduces the chances of hospitalisation or deaths due to Covid-19. However, it also warned that vaccinated people could still spread the Delta variant and recommended a face mask in public indoor settings to everyone in areas where the spread of the disease is higher.