NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci joins White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for the day by day press briefing on the White House in Washington, U.S. November 22, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday reflected on the U.S. response to the Covid-19 pandemic in what was likely his last public briefing because the nation’s top infectious disease expert.
Nearly three years after Covid-19 first arrived on America’s shores, Fauci said he never imagined the pandemic would last so long and take so many lives.
“I didn’t imagine and I do not think any of my colleagues imagined that we might see a three-year saga of suffering and death and one million Americans losing their lives,” Fauci, 81, told reporters during a Covid update on the White House.
Fauci is stepping down in December as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases after nearly 40 years on the helm and as White House chief medical advisor.
He said probably the most disturbing feature of Covid was the evolution of multiple variants, which upended the U.S. response to the pandemic several times.
When challenged about mixed messages given to the general public concerning the virus within the early days of the pandemic, Fauci said public health officials were coping with an evolving outbreak.
Public health guidance modified because information concerning the virus modified from week to week and month to month, he said.
Initially health officials thought the virus spread from animals to humans, but subsequently learned it spread thoroughly between people, Fauci said. It also became clear later that the virus was aerosolized and as much as 60% of individuals were spreading it had no symptoms in any respect, he said.
“The recommendations based on what in January, by the point you get to March, April and May — they may change,” Fauci said. “Understandably that results in a matter on the a part of the general public: Why do they keep changing things?”
Fauci said that some of the difficult parts of the pandemic for him was the politicization of public health under the Trump administration.
Noting that many individuals have refused to get the Covid vaccine for ideological reasons, Fauci said, “As a physician, it pains me because I don’t need to see anybody get infected, I don’t need to see anybody hospitalized and I don’t need to see anybody die from Covid.”
“Whether you are a far-right Republican or a far-left Democrat, it doesn’t make any difference to me,” he said. “I look upon it the identical way as I did within the emergency room in middle Recent York City after I was taking good care of everybody who was coming in off the road.”
Though Covid deaths have declined dramatically, the virus continues to be killing greater than 300 people a day on average, in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health officials have said those that are dying are primarily elderly or other vulnerable individuals who aren’t up up to now on their vaccines or aren’t receiving treatment after breakthrough infections.
Fauci called on Americans to get a Covid booster to guard their health ahead of one other expected surge of infection this winter as people travel and gather for the vacations.
For many years Fauci was respected on each side of the political aisle, but he became a lightening rod for a lot of conservatives because the response to the pandemic became increasingly politicized under former President Donald Trump.
House Republicans, who now have a majority after the midterm elections, have vowed to launch an investigation into the origins of the pandemic and call on Fauci to testify.
Fauci on Tuesday said he would cooperate fully: “If there are oversight hearings I absolutely will cooperate fully and testify before the Congress. I haven’t any trouble testifying — we will defend and explain every little thing that we have said.”
