Fauci says ‘control’ phase of pandemic underway, but COVID-19 will not disappear

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, said during a virtual National Press Club Newsmaker on Friday, April 29, that the United States is now in the “control” phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, but eradication of the disease is “almost impossible.”

He said this phase means that infections are present, but society is not disrupted by thousands of infections and deaths and the hospital system is not overwhelmed with patients.

“That does not mean the pandemic is over,” Fauci said. “By no means is it over. We are still experiencing a global pandemic.”

Instead of fully eradicating COVID-19, Fauci said, the U.S. can keep infection rates low and retain control over the disease by vaccinating as many people as possible and getting eligible people boosters, while also having in place common sense hygiene measures and voluntary masking.

By doing that, he said COVID-19 will get to a level “low enough so that it doesn’t disrupt the society, either economically or socially from the standpoint of what we can do in schools and in jobs.”

But reaching herd immunity is “likely unattainable,” Fauci said, as the virus can produce variants. He noted that herd immunity to measles and polio was only achieved because those diseases do not mutate, and protection against them is durable.

“It’s really difficult to get a strong, classical herd immunity when you have immunity that wanes and a virus that in fact does not stay stable,” Fauci said. “And you have an anti-vax movement that prevents many people from getting vaccinated.”

Adults aged 50 and older and those with underlying health conditions or weakened immune systems are eligible for a second booster, something Fauci recommended people get. But he said the hope is for vaccines to continue developing so that people need to get boosted “only intermittently” given how immunity wanes, something Fauci said is characteristic of coronaviruses.

Fauci acknowledged that while there may not yet be a single vaccine dose to prevent infection, more needs to be done as having people get boosted every few months is not a sustainable course of action. “We’ve got to do better,” Fauci said, noting that health officials will know in the summer about any next phase of boosters for the wider population.

A court order recently struck down the federal mask mandate on public transportation and air travel, leading many agencies to make masks optional for passengers. Fauci said it is up to everyone individually on whether they choose to wear a mask based on their individual risk factors, although he said they offer protection from infections.

With the pandemic now in existence for over two years, Fauci bemoaned misinformation around the COVID-19 vaccines, which he said were able to be produced so quickly due to prior scientific advances and a robust network of clinical trials. He said the “heavy dose” of vaccine misinformation continues to undermine the country’s response, when the “common enemy, unquestionably, is the virus.”