ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb While appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, host Jake Tapper asked Fauci to clarify the goal President Joe Biden set last week that Americans would be able to safely host backyard get-togethers for the summer’s biggest holiday. He expressed confidence that current vaccination trends made such gatherings a more likely scenario. “If by the time we get to the Fourth of July, with the rollout of the vaccine, we get the level of infection so low—I’m not going to be able to tell you exactly what the specific guidelines of the [CDC] are, but I can tell you for sure [guidelines] will be much more liberal than they are right now about what you can do,” he said. And for more on what vaccinated people shouldn’t do right now, check out Dr. Fauci Just Said to Avoid This One Place, Even If You’re Vaccinated. The top infectious disease expert was also quick to point out that such changes were not a given. During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press on the same day, Fauci told host Chuck Todd that the recent drop in cases didn’t necessarily mean that the pandemic could be put behind us just yet. He warned that we shouldn’t “spike the ball on the five-yard line.” “Even though the decline was steep, we absolutely need to avoid the urge to say, ‘Oh, everything is going great,’” he cautioned. “When you get a plateau at a level around 60,000 new infections per day, there’s always the risk of another surge. And that’s the thing we really want to avoid because we are going in the right direction.” And for more on when another spike in cases could be possible, check out Dr. Fauci Says This Is the Sign That We’ll Have Another COVID Surge. Fauci pointed out that with COVID cases in the U.S. hovering at the high levels they’re currently at—around 50,000 to 60,000 new cases nationwide per day—some states’ decision to remove mask mandates and capacity limits on activities such as indoor dining was dangerously preemptive. He used Italy as an example, which recently saw a jump in infections that led to another lockdown in the country that began on Monday, March 15. “They had a diminution of cases. They plateaued and they pulled back on public health measures,” he told Tapper. “They’ve opened restaurants. They’ve opened some of the bars. The younger people particularly stopped wearing masks. All of a sudden you have a surge that went right back up. That’s where we are right now. We can avoid that.” And for more COVID news delivered right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. When asked about dangerous new variants that have continued to emerge and spread worldwide, Fauci said he was confident that our current vaccinations were effective against new strains. He pointed out that those who have been immunized are much less likely to develop severe COVID or die from the disease overall. “The best way that we can avoid any threat from variants is to do two things: Get as many people vaccinated as quickly as we possibly can, and to continue with the public health measures, until we get this broad umbrella of protection over society, that the level of infection is very low,” Fauci said. And for more optimistic predictions, check out This Is When the COVID Pandemic Will Be Completely Over, Experts Say.
