Dr Fauci warns Americans to brace for ‘surge upon surge’ of coronavirus

Americans ought to brace for a “surge upon a surge” within the coronavirus as hundreds of thousands of vacationers return dwelling after the Thanksgiving vacation, US authorities scientist Anthony Fauci mentioned Sunday.

“There almost certainly is going to be an uptick because of what has happened with the travel,” Fauci informed CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“We may see a surge upon a surge” in two or three weeks, he added. “We don’t want to frighten people, but that’s the reality.”

This was an ominous development, Fauci added, with the Christmas holidays and extra year-end journey looming, he mentioned.

The virus is blamed for greater than 266,000 deaths within the US, the hardest-hit nation on the planet, with cooler climate bringing each day loss of life figures nearing the worst ranges of April.

– Pre-positioned vaccine –

Fauci’s feedback got here as US information media reported that first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine in opposition to Covid-19 — one of many first to assert excessive effectiveness, together with a Moderna product — had arrived within the United States from a Pfizer lab in Belgium.

Pfizer was utilizing constitution flights to pre-position vaccine for fast distribution as soon as it receives US approval — anticipated as early as December 10 — the Wall Street Journal and different media reported.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, each mentioned to be secure and maybe 95 p.c efficient, have launched a much-needed glimmer of hope after months of gloomy information.

“This puts the end to the pandemic. This is the way we get out of the pandemic. The light is at the end of the tunnel,” Admiral Brett Giroir, the US official overseeing coronavirus testing, informed CNN.

But like Fauci he expressed grave issues concerning the months instantly forward.

“Our hospitalizations are peaking right now at about 95,000,” Giroir mentioned. “About 20 percent of all people in the hospital have Covid, so this is a really dangerous time.”

Until giant numbers of Americans have been vaccinated — Giroir mentioned half the eligible inhabitants may be by March — a lot will depend upon folks taking the advisable precautions, together with mask-wearing and distancing, he and Fauci mentioned.

Giroir mentioned it’d take till the second or third quarter of subsequent 12 months for many Americans to be vaccinated, however that substantial advantages would accrue a lot sooner.

By first vaccinating these at highest threat, he mentioned, “we can absolutely get 80 percent of the benefit of the vaccine by only immunizing a few percent of the population.”