Dr. Anthony Fauci this week said Americans must be “flexible” enough to reinstitute Chinese coronavirus mandates if officials deem it “necessary.”
“I would expect that we might see an uptick in cases here in the United States,” Fauci said while speaking of the “Stealth Omicron” sub-variant with ABC 10News. “Over the coming weeks, it will become more dominant (than Omicron).”
“It’s more likely to transmit,” he continued. “The somewhat encouraging news is that BA.2 variant doesn’t appear to make the disease any more severe than BA.1 (Omicron) and doesn’t seem to evade immune responses any more than BA.1.”
However, Fauci made it clear that the U.S., in his opinion, is not out of the woods when it comes to mandates and restrictions.
“We have to be careful that if we do see a surge as a result of that, that we’re flexible enough to re-institute the kinds of interventions that could be necessary to stop an additional surge,” Fauci said:
Fauci also said this week that it is “likely that we’re not done with this when it comes to vaccines” as well, refusing to fully move past the virus, even as a majority of Americans indicate they are no longer worried about “experiencing” the virus themselves.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director’s remarks coincide with the departure of White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients. His leave comes as President Biden, similar to Fauci, warns that the fight against the virus is “far from done.”
“We must fight the virus overseas, prepare for new waves, and new variants – all of which can be coming,” Biden said.