Chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that the coronavirus pandemic was not over, adding “you can’t wish it away.”

Host Joy Reid said, “COVID cases are rising at an alarming rate as we head into the fall. The number of new infections this Labor Day was nearly four times of that one year ago, and the number of deaths due to COVID is nearly double. That’s thanks to the highly contagious Delta variant as well as the roughly 75 million Americans who are eligible for the vaccine but refuse to take it. The Washington Post reports in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas, more than 90% of the ICU beds in hospitals are in use. Then there’s also the Mu variant that’s now been detected in 48 states according to Newsweek, completely overshadowing the previous greek alphabet variant, Lambda. A large portion of the country is acting like nothing is going on. That’s certainly apparent in college football as we saw maskless fans packed into stadiums like this one at the University of Wisconsin in Madison this weekend.”

She continued, “Dr. Fauci, always great to talk to you. I have to start by asking you what was your sort of immediate thought when you saw all of those fans packed into stadiums in Texas, Wisconsin, and elsewhere? As soon as I saw it, I thought COVID is about to have a feast. What did you think?”

Fauci said, “I thought the same thing. I think it’s really unfortunate. People would like to say we’re done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us. And that’s really the problem. You can’t wish it away. When you have the numbers of infections that you just mentioned a moment ago, I would hope that most of the people in that stadium were vaccinated. Even if they were, the close congregate setting, they should have been wearing masks. Certainly, those who were unvaccinated should be wearing masks. I didn’t see any of that in the picture that I saw about that, which is really unfortunate because then you lead to outbreak, which leads to hospitalizations, which get to the numbers that you were talking about a few moments ago.”

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