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By Zack Budryk - 11/22/20 09:43 AM EST
The director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on Sunday said that the current wave of coronavirus cases is worse because Americans are not “acting with common purpose” the way they were in the spring.
“We are seeing this new spike because of the gradual accumulation of choices and policies over the last couple of months,” Tom Inglesby said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“Unlike the springtime when the country really was acting with common purpose around March and April at the start of this pandemic and when the virus was located in comparatively fewer places, the epidemic now is surging in almost every state in the country with the Midwest and the mountain west really being out in front in terms of rapidly accelerating numbers of cases,” he added.
Host Chris Wallace asked Inglesby to respond to critics of mask mandates who said the question should be left up to individuals rather than required.
“We trust government to do things to keep us safe, so we trust government to set speed limits in neighborhoods, so we don’t drive too fast and risk injuring or killing kids who are playing in the street,” Inglesby responded. “That would be the analogy I would use in this case.”
Thirty-seven states have some form of mask mandate in place. President-elect Joe Biden has said he will seek a nationwide equivalent upon taking office.
Wallace also questioned Inglesby on the risks of gathering for Thanksgiving celebrations, with Inglesby strongly recommending against travel.
“Moving through airports or travel hubs will increase the risk but even if they’re driving from point to point we don’t know if we’re infected when we walk into a gathering,” he said. “The message is for everyone is you can’t assume you don’t have the virus and you can’t assume the people whose homes you’re about to enter don’t have the virus.”
By Zack Budryk - 11/22/20 11:23 AM EST
© getty: Anthony Fauci Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, warned that the U.S. was in a “very, very difficult situation at all levels” with regard to the coronavirus pandemic, but said “we should not look upon this as a hopeless situation.”
“We’re in a very, very difficult situation at all levels,” Fauci said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” citing increasing infections throughout most of the country. He added that in terms of public health measures to stem the spread, “we’re not talking about shutting down the country and locking down completely but we do know mitigation measures work” such as wearing masks, social distancing and frequent hand-washing.
Fauci, pointing to the development of two separate vaccine candidates, urged Americans not to lose hope even as they continued to take precautions.
“You don’t want people to get terrified but you want them to understand that we can do something about that by mitigation methods and also help is on the way, so we should not look upon this as a hopeless situation,” he said.
“When you get COVID fatigue, which is entirely understandable, that people just throw up their hands and say heck, we’re not going to be able to do anything about it, let’s just do what we want to do, that’s the wrong decision, because vaccines are coming and they’re going to be available relatively soon if we can hang in there with the mitigation methods,” Fauci added.
Fauci cautioned that for a vaccine to achieve herd immunity depended on a combination of the vaccine’s efficacy and how many people take it.
“If you have a highly efficacious vaccine and only a relatively small 40 to 50 percent of the population get vaccinated, you’re not going to get the herd immunity you need,” he added.
The chief adviser to the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed said Sunday that it is “unfortunate” that the COVID-19 vaccine “has been politicized.”
Moncef Slaoui during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” attributed polls showing a decreased public willingness to be inoculated against COVID-19 to the process being “politicized.”
“I really think it’s very unfortunate that the whole process has been politicized and therefore the context has created conditions whereby people’s perception have been exacerbated, and we are where we are today,” he said.
Slaoui told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he thinks the American public has “misunderstood” the level of efficacy the Food and Drug Administration requires for a vaccine to be approved.
His comments come after Pfizer and its German partner company, BioNtech, applied for emergency authorization for their vaccine last week, which it expects to be 95 percent effective. Pfizer’s rival, Moderna, also is moving forward with a vaccine that preliminary analysis showed to be almost 95 percent effective.
Slaoui on Sunday said that the levels of efficacy of the vaccine candidates are “almost a full insurance against this pandemic.”
“I think and I hope that’s gonna change people’s perception,” he said.
Slaoui also said he expects enough Americans – 70 percent – will receive the vaccine to reach the necessary herd immunity in May.
“I really hope and look forward to seeing that the level of negative perception of the vaccine decreases, and people’s acceptance increases,” he said. “That’s going to be critical to help us. Most people need to be immunized before we can go back to a normal life.”
Jake Tapper coronavirus vaccine Sunday shows Coronavirus Pandemic COVID-19 politicization operation warp speed