The United States' leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, reflected on Tuesday on the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic in what is seen as his last public briefing.
The medical expert's remarks come nearly three years after the deadly coronavirus started spreading in the United States. He said that he never thought that the COVID-19 pandemic would last so long and kill so many people.
COVID-19 in US
The 81-year-old infectious disease expert said that he nor his colleagues did not imagine that they would see a three-year-long coronavirus pandemic causing suffering and death. He added that none of them expected to see a million Americans lose their lives due to the disease.
In December, Fauci will step down as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) after almost four decades at the helm of the agency. He is also going to step down as White House chief medical advisor.
Fauci said that the most disturbing feature of the coronavirus was the evolution of multiple variants that were able to bypass immunities and vaccines or were more contagious. The variants upended the US's response to the pandemic multiple times throughout the health crisis, as per CNBC.
The medical expert, when questioned about mixed messages given to the public about the virus during the early stages of the pandemic, said that public health officials were dealing with an evolving health crisis.
Fauci said that at the time, public health guidance changed because the information available regarding the virus changed from week to week and month to month. Health officials initially thought that the virus spread from animals to humans but later found out that it spread very well between humans.
According to the New York Times, Fauci's remarks come as health officials also expressed optimism that the United States was in a much better place to weather a sudden surge of COVID-19 infections this winter season compared to last year. Health officials have also renewed their pleas for US citizens to get updated on their booster shots before the holidays.
Anthony Fauci's Last Briefing
Fauci said that while the trajectory of the virus continues to be a mystery, the Biden administration was hopeful that the combination of infections and vaccinations was able to create sufficient community protection to prevent a repeat of what happened last year during the holidays.
Health officials have been monitoring a new subvariant of Omicron, XBB, with some caution as families gather for Thanksgiving. It is the subvariant that drove a wave of infections in India and Singapore and is thought to be better at evading antibodies from prior infection or vaccination.
Fauci has been a near-constant presence at White House briefings throughout the coronavirus pandemic as the director of NIAID. He also served as a scientific check in 2020 to former United States President Donald Trump's opinions on the virus.
The medical expert stayed on after the election, with President Joe Biden later assigning him as the top personal adviser on the pandemic. Fauci said that he wants people to remember his work in the government as him giving it all, ABC News reported.
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