Fauci: ‘Other countries need to chip in’ to help India

Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that other countries need to “chip in” amid India’s struggle against a surge in COVID-19 cases that is crippling the country.

During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Fauci told host George Stephanopoulos that despite India being the largest vaccine maker in the world, it needs help getting hospital beds, building field hospitals and obtaining oxygen for patients. Fauci said ultimately the “end game” would be to get people vaccinated.

“They’ve got to get their resources, not only from within but also from without, and that’s the reason why other countries need to chip in to be able to get either supplies for the Indians to make their own vaccines or to get vaccines donated,” Fauci told Stephanopoulos. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci on the COVID-19 crisis in India: “The end game of this all, George, is going to be to get people vaccinated.” https://t.co/ZDW8CrXSez pic.twitter.com/tErbWcRm8f

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) May 9, 2021

Fauci said one way to get as many people vaccinated as possible was to have big drug companies “scale up” production in “a great way” to get millions of doses to people.

Fauci said he had advised Indian officials that looking forward, shutting down the country is the best way to prevent surges in transmission.

“There are other ways too, like shutting down the government. I have advised them in the past that you really need to do that. You’ve got to shut down,” Fauci said. “I believe several of the Indian states have already done that. But you need to break the chain of transmission.”