Fauci concerned about states with low vaccination levels

Anthony Fauci said on Thursday that he is “fairly certain” that the U.S. will not see another large wave of COVID-19 infections like the nation has previously seen but that he is still concerned about the spread of the virus in states with low coronavirus vaccination levels. 

During an appearance CNN’s “New Day,” Fauci noted that the country has reached fewer than 20,000 COVID-19 cases per day on a weekly average as more Americans get vaccinated.

But the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases warned that “the one thing we want to make sure is that we don’t declare victory prematurely and feel that because things are going in the right direction that we don’t have to keep vaccinating people.”

“What my concern is, is in those states in which you have relatively few, compared to others, people vaccinated, when you’re below 50 percent of the people being vaccinated, that’s when you’re going to have a problem,” he added.  

Dozens of states across the country have at least half of their adult population fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and the majority of all adults in the U.S. are now fully vaccinated.

Fauci told CNN that, due to the percentage of Americans who have been vaccinated, he feels “fairly certain you’re not going to see the kind of surges we’ve seen in the past.”

But he noted that in states where vaccination levels are low, “you may continue to see higher levels of cases as we get into the summer.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci says he is “fairly certain” that the country as a whole will not see “the kind of surges we’ve seen in the past” given that a large percentage of the country is vaccinated.

“What I am concerned about [is] those states in which the level of vaccination is low.” pic.twitter.com/9MIAvpAbKg

— New Day (@NewDay) June 3, 2021

Fauci added that health officials are focused on meeting President Biden’s goal of reaching 70 percent of adults with at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by July 4.

“That’s the reason why you see what the president is doing, and all of us are doing in leadership is to get people as vaccinated as quickly as possible as many as possible, whatever it takes,” Fauci said. “Make it extremely easy for people to get vaccinated, give incentives, do whatever you can to get people to get vaccinated.”

The president on Wednesday unveiled an aggressive campaign to reach that goal by Independence Day, including a range of incentives such as offering free child care for parents and caregivers at four of the nation’s largest child care centers, partnering with Black-owned salons and barber shops as part of a “Shots at the Shop” initiative and more.