Fauci: ‘Could Be Close’ to Normal by the End of the Year

IAN HANCHETT

During a virtual town hall on MSNBC on Friday, White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that “by the time we get to the fall and the winter we may not be back 100% to where we were before this started,” but we “could be close to that by the end of this coming year.”

Fauci said, “Well, it’s difficult to predict. But if we keep going in the direction we’re going now, with the infection rate going down precipitously and more and more people getting vaccinated, I think by the time we get to the fall and the winter we may not be back 100% to where we were before this started, but I think we could be close to that by the end of this coming year. But it’s not going to be next month or the month after. That’s for sure. We have to be patient. It’s going to get better and better. We also, quite frankly, have to keep our eye out on these variants, namely the mutations that have occurred that make the virus a little bit different. The best way to protect yourself against that is, one, do the kind of public health measures we talk about all the time, wearing a mask, physical distancing, and avoiding congregate settings. And two, when the vaccine becomes available, please get vaccinated. The more people that get vaccinated, the better off we’ll be, and the quicker we’ll get back to that normality that you’re talking about.”