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NIH’s Anthony Fauci Shares Candid Assessment On Where We Are In The
Pandemic And Observations On The State Of US Society
In two
recent interviews in mid-November with Ted Koppel at ABC News
and with Michael Barboro at the New York Times, the National
Institute of Health’s Anthony Fauci shared his candid views
about the pandemic and the public health role he has played as a
frequent spokesperson in the media.
The
recent decline in cases, the continuing circulation of misinformation
about all aspects of COVID, the serious attacks and threats against
public health officials, and the large number of remaining
unvaccinated persons have left many Americans wondering how the
pandemic will unfold from this point forward. Both Barbaro and Koppel
asked questions about these topics.
Status of the Pandemic
There
are both positive and negative signs to use in interpreting the status
of the pandemic, according to Fauci. Among the positive features are
the decline in cases in the latest surge, the vaccination program that
has reached many people, the approval of vaccines for children, and
the finding that booster doses of vaccine appear to be safe and
effective in reversing waning immunity.
Among
the concerning features of the current situation is the plateauing of
cases at over 70,000 cases per day which can be seen as setting up the
population to have a resurgence from an already high baseline.
Asked by
the Times why the current baseline level of cases is even higher than
it was over a year ago despite the existence of a large scale
vaccination program, Fauci noted that the more transmissible Delta
variant now exists, over 60 million persons remain unvaccinated, and
waning of immunity against infection and hospitalization is occurring.
Booster Doses
Predicted As Essential
An important
projection made by Fauci is that a booster dose may come to be seen
not as an extra or bonus dose but as an essential part of the primary
vaccine regimen when more facts are made available.
Other vaccines require
multiple doses in the primary regimen. With additional success in
vaccinating the
unvaccinated and with boosting those who have had the initially
recommended number of doses, then any future surges should differ from
past increases in cases, according to Fauci.
Problem
of the Unvaccinated
Asked to
comment by the Times on the problem caused by the large remaining
number of unvaccinated persons, Fauci pointed out that these
vulnerable persons face a threat not only to themselves but they
provide opportunity for the virus to circulate and create new
problematic variants, and to cause breakthrough infections among those
already vaccinated.
To
increase vaccination levels, Fauci thinks that ideally these persons
would get vaccinated on their own accord and that would be the
preferable approach. However, if that doesn’t work, then recognizing
that individuals do not live in a vacuum but are part of a community,
that we are in an emergency pandemic situation, and knowing that
mandates work to get more people vaccinated, then we have to take
unusual measures such as mandates. Said Fauci, “…unusual measures mean
you have to sacrifice your own feeling that you have absolute control
over what happens to you with what the good of society is. I think
mandates fall under that category…I’m an idealist, but I’m also quite
a realist. And that’s the reason I support mandates.”
Without
Mandates
If
mandates don’t work because governors are opposed or the courts are
not supportive, there are not many tools left for getting people
vaccinated, according to Fauci. He added, “And that’s really very,
very difficult and painful as a public health official to see that if
we don’t do what is clearly and unambiguously the right thing to do--
to use a tool that is highly effective to prevent the suffering and
the death that goes on — then that would be very bad for us as a
nation...”
We’ve
lost over 750,000 Americans thus far. We have 46 million infections,
likely more since many go undetected. And we know what we can do. I’ve
been involved in public health for over 40 years, and there have been
diseases that I’ve had to deal with in which you don’t have any
intervention. That’s very frustrating because you say, if only I had
an intervention, I could do something about this disease...
Now we
have a historic pandemic, the likes of which we have not seen in over
100 years, and we have highly effective, safe tools to end it. It
would be really, I think, a terrible tragedy if we let more Americans
and more people throughout the world — because I believe that we need
to pay attention to what goes on in the rest of the world — if we let
more people die and more people get very, very ill by not using the
tools that we are lucky enough to have.”
Asked to
describe the scenario if mandates are not used, Fauci reminded
listeners that ultimately all pandemics burn themselves out. He said,
“At the end of the day…this is going to end one way or another. The
preferable way, if you just think about it for a moment, is to do
whatever we can to minimize the suffering and the death. And we have
within our power to do it. If we don’t utilize it, then bad things are
going to happen.”
Trust
Asked
about the lack of trust in public health officials and the threats and
attacks they have been subjected to, Fauci used his own experiences to
provide a perspective.
“Well, I
think it’s a sad state of affairs, where you have public health
officials who are clearly doing things that have no other objective
but to preserve and protect the health of the American public, who get
attacked for that, whose lives get threatened, whose families get
harassed. I mean, I’m experiencing it on steroids here for the last
well over a year…
Where
else and what other historical situation have you seen where a public
health official, who is merely trying to get people vaccinated to
mitigate against the outbreak by wearing a mask, by following very
clear and standard public health measures, who continually gets his
life threatened, gets his family harassed, his children harassed…
I’m
talking about me. So tell me what’s wrong with society when a public
health official, who’s a civil servant and not a politician, gets that
kind of threat. I think we have a real problem in society.”
Asked by
the Times if he felt like he was less trusted now than when the
pandemic began, Fauci replied his view depends on which population you
are asking about. Persons who live by a lack of facts, conspiracy
theories, and disinformation and misinformation, don’t trust him or
those in the public health sector. On a more positive note, Fauci
noted. “The people who look at this realistically and try to get
correct information, I believe they do trust us very, very much.”
ABC
Interview
In the
introduction to the ABC interview, the network said Fauci was fighting
a war on two fronts, against the virus and against misinformation.
When asked if the pandemic could have gone differently, if cases and
deaths could have been avoided, Fauci said yes if the leadership had
led differently. It denied what was happening and that is a real
serious problem. He told Koppel that he believes the national response
went awry early on when individual rights were presented as
superceding society’s safety. In fact, the pandemic was much worse
than what the administration was saying, according to Fauci.
Koppel
noted that Fauci’s poll numbers have been dropping and wondered if
Fauci is now only preaching to the choir. He told Koppel that if you
just keep lying over and over again making preposterous accusations,
then people will believe these lies. That’s the way it is, said Fauci
and he can't change that aspect of our society, social media, and how
it works.
Asked if
the end of the pandemic will come as suggested by a Hopkins
epidemiologist recently simply when we stop caring. Fauci was quick to
respond that we cannot stop caring when we are experiencing 70-75,000
cases and 1,000 deaths per day. He stated, it was unacceptable to live
with this level of morbidity and mortality when you have a vaccine
that is highly safe and effective.
Asked if
having the right highly trusted person in full charge of the national
pandemic response the next time would be the right solution, Fauci
said yes maybe if the country recognized that a communal effort was
needed. However, that is not where we are now. Instead there is
widespread political divisiveness and this is the environment in which
we have battled the virus. Regardless of what critics say about him by
creating “crazy fabrications out of political motivations”, Fauci told
Koppel he will continue to do the important work of his Institute
until COVID is in the rear view mirror.
To
listen to the interviews, visit
https://nyti.ms/30DsjO7
https://bit.ly/3DpGpRi
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