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The country’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci warned on Sunday that the extraordinarily contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus is raging around the world and could cause another massive spike in the United States, particularly among the unvaccinated.
“This virus is extraordinary,” he said, referring to the new variant on CNN’s State of the Union.
But as Americans grapple with whether to cut back on vacation gatherings and travel plans this week, Dr. Adhering to current preventative tools should provide the most protection, Fauci said.
Dr. “If you’re vaccinated and strong, and you’re careful to make sure you’re always wearing your mask when going to public places like airports, you should be fine,” Fauci told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He urged air travelers to remain masked during flights.
Christmas 2021 doesn’t have to be a repeat of Christmas 2020, he said. He even encouraged people to get tested if they plan to attend the celebrations indoors, and try to avoid gatherings if they are unsure whether all guests have been vaccinated.
Dr. “We’re in better shape now than a year ago,” Fauci told CNN. “We now have multiple tests at home, and a year ago there were almost none. But we need to do better.”
At-home testing is more common, but scarce in certain areas that are struggling to keep up with demand.
Still, with 50 million eligible Americans unvaccinated against Covid, the next six to eight weeks looks set to bring an increase in cases, deaths, hospital overcrowding, and proportionally exhausted healthcare workers, especially in areas with low vaccination rates, he said. .
He made a fervent request to people who have received two doses of the Covid vaccine, which will significantly strengthen their resistance to the Omicron variant, to take a supplement as soon as they become available.
He also said that breakthrough infections will continue to occur among those vaccinated.
On his last day as director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins has expressed outrage at those who claim that the breakthrough infections show that vaccines don’t work.
He told Fox News Sunday that vaccines aren’t perfect. But if people get Covid after getting vaccinated, “You’ll probably have a pretty mild case. You’ll have a cold, maybe a day or two with a fever, but you won’t be in ICU Vaccines are really good at protecting against serious illness.”
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