Darkest days still to come
The worst of the coronavirus pandemic is yet to come, and Americans should brace for a post-holiday-season surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Sunday.
“We very well might see a post-seasonal — in the sense of Christmas, New Year’s — surge or as I’ve described it, a surge upon a surge,” Fauci told CNN anchor Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
“If you look at the slope, the incline of cases we’ve experienced as we’ve got into the late fall and soon-to-be early winter, it really is quite troubling,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said.
Fauci, however, added that the COVID-19 vaccine is still on track to reach healthy Americans by April, although the initial rollout is lagging behind the goal of 20 million doses for December.
Fauci said he believes that the US will “catch up” in the next few months although only around 1.9 million doses of the vaccines have been administered so far.
“Of course, when you compare 2 million to 20 million, that’s a big difference,” Fauci said.
“Whenever you roll out a large program that’s a comprehensive vaccine program with a brand new vaccine like this, in the beginning it always starts slow and then starts to gain momentum.
“I believe we’ll catch up with the projection that by the time we get to April, midlate April, you’ll have taken the high-priority people and already accounted for them and then anyone can get vaccinated,” Fauci said.