By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

DR ANTHONY Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the US President, says the end to the COVID-19 pandemic will see levels of infection that no longer disrupt societies across the world.

Ideally, Dr Fauci said officials are eying next spring as a timeline for considerably lower virus cases, particularly in the US where an estimated 70,000 new infections occur each day. He said officials there want less than 10,000 daily cases.

And as the holidays approach, Dr Fauci urged Bahamians to continue to be vaccinated, insisting: “It would make it much safer for you to do that if you get vaccinated.”

He was a guest, via Zoom, on Guardian Radio Talk Show “Morning Blend” with host Dwight Strachan yesterday.

“We are still in the pandemic phase but there are multiple phases,” Dr Fauci said in response to a question regarding what could be expected from the World Health Organization to signal the end of the pandemic.

“You go from the pandemic phase, which means it’s somewhat out of control, which it is. We know that globally. Then you get a deceleration of cases and the pandemic is over, but then you get to control and there is variable levels of control, so the WHO could be clear that it’s over as a pandemic when you get down to a certain lower level of infection throughout the world but that doesn’t mean that we’re done with it because if you get really, really good control then you have very, very few cases.

“Right now, in the United States even though the cases are coming down we are still averaging about 70,000 cases a day. So, we are not done with it. We are still in a phase that is causing a disruption of our society.

“We need to get the cases down to very, very low, well below 10,000 a day before we can say we have any kind of a good control or maybe even much lower. So, you can declare a pandemic over but you could still have a lot of cases in the community.

We want to get as low-level control as we possibly can.”

He also said: “What we’re hoping is that when we get through this winter and go into the spring that we will then have a lower level that it is not disrupting society, but that will depend very much on how many people throughout the world we get vaccinated.”

According to Dr Fauci, there is compelling evidence to support the efficacy of vaccines.

“Just look at what the data shows. If you are vaccinated versus unvaccinated, you have about a six times greater chance of getting infected if you’re unvaccinated compared to vaccinated.

“You have over a ten times greater chance of getting hospitalised and over ten times greater chance of dying if you are unvaccinated compared to vaccinated.

“The data (is) very clear. You don’t have to believe any individual person.

“…The facts are in favour of people getting vaccinated.”

He also responded to critics who argue the need for COVID-19 boosters puts into question how well the jabs work.

“There are many vaccines that we have that require more than one or two doses,” he said.

“Take a look at the Hepatitis vaccine. It has a very similar profile. You get vaccinated. You get a booster about a month later and then six months later you get another booster and then you are good to go.

“Same way with childhood vaccines. When we get measles, mumps, rubella all of those vaccines there are always multiple doses. So, the idea that you require two or three or more doses is not unusual for vaccines – that doesn’t tell you that the vaccines are not effective.

“What it does tell you (is) to get maximum efficacy you may need a regimen which will require multiple doses.”