The United States does not need more widespread lockdowns to bring its coronavirus outbreak under control, despite the fact that the national daily infection rate has stayed flat, leading government expert Anthony Fauci said.
The coronavirus causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
Speaking to AFP, the physician-scientist added that he is optimistic the world would soon have a vaccine that would end the pandemic, calling early trial results “encouraging”.
“I don’t think we’re going to be talking about going back to lockdown,” he said when asked whether places like California and Texas that are seeing a surge in their caseload should reissue stay-at-home orders. “I think we’re going to be talking about trying to better control those areas of the country that seem to be having a surge of cases.”
The US leads the world in the number of confirmed infections and in deaths, with the fatality toll approaching 120,000.
But while former epicentres New York and New Jersey have controlled their outbreaks, the virus is now increasing in 20 states – creating a plateau in the national case graph.
On the question of re-opening the country’s borders, he struck a cautious note.
“Obviously, there is an interest in getting back to some form of normality in our interactions with other countries,” he said, adding the topic was reviewed almost daily but refusing to give a timeline.
The 79-year-old has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, and has overseen the nation’s response to every epidemic from HIV onward.
A growing issue however has been a loss of public faith in science.
“Even when the recommendations are to wear a mask, a recommendation that I’ve been involved in making, there are some groups that actually do the recommendations very strictly,” said Fauci. “And then ... you see pictures of people in bars and in congregations without that. So again, it’s a mixed bag.”
Many within the scientific community have described the development of a vaccine for the Sars-CoV-2 – the coronavirus’ official name – as a “Moonshot”, given there has never been a successful vaccine for any human coronavirus.
Then there is the fact that scientists have failed to develop a vaccine for HIV, despite trying for decades.
Fauci stressed that the two weren’t comparable.
“The reason I have more confidence with coronavirus is that we know the majority of people recover from Covid-19 because their immune system clears the virus,” he said. “So nature has already given you a proof of concept that it can be done.”
Since people who recover produce virus-fighting antibodies, scientists are confident that these antibodies can also be elicited by a man-made antigen.