US expert Fauci on the corona situation: “It’s going in the right direction”

The US health expert Fauci has expressed cautious optimism in view of the stagnating corona numbers. Accordingly, there are signs of a trend reversal in the pandemic. Experts warn against hasty carelessness.

It’s the phrase millions of Americans have been waiting for weeks. “It’s looking good. It’s going in the right direction,” US President Biden’s chief medical adviser, immunologist Anthony Fauci, told ABC.

Florian Mayer
ARD Studio Washington

The omicron wave has reached its peak. The case curve is expected to drop rapidly over the next few weeks – from 5.7 million positive cases nationwide in the coming week to 3.6 million in four weeks. This was reported by the US health authority CDC.

Fauci sees a positive trend

According to Fauci, the trend is currently particularly evident along the east coast. New York, Colorado, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Florida have reported falling numbers of cases for a few days. The effect is nevertheless clear and will continue.

“If this continues to evolve like we’re seeing elsewhere, like in the northeast of the country, then I think we’re going to see that trend reversal across the country,” Fauci said. The same could be observed with the Omikron variant in South Africa, Great Britain and Israel.

“We hope that over the next few weeks and months we will see that the infection rate gets so low that it gets into a range that I think is controllable, and that is large,” Fauci continued. However, control does not mean that the virus is eradicated, but that it joins the typical respiratory diseases.

Experts continue to urge caution

In other words, US health officials are cautiously optimistic that they will have Corona under control by summer. The emphasis is on “cautious”. Because even if the next few months give reason for hope, the worst is still in the middle, warned the professor of emergency medicine in Rhode Island, Megan Ranney, on CNN.

“Our hospitals and intensive care units across the country are still at a critical point because of a combination of corona patients and people who are seriously ill for other reasons. They need help now,” says Ranney.

Data from health authorities, which is regularly evaluated by the University of Minnesota, shows that 77 percent of hospitals in the United States are currently struggling with high or very high occupancy. In many hospitals across the country, corona patients still make up more than 20 percent of the occupied beds.

Fauci: “You should never be too sure”

With this situation in mind, and at the same time hoping for a quick leveling off of the omicron wave, Peter Hotez, co-director of the vaccine development center at Children’s Hospital in Texas, also warns at CNN against overzealous complacency. Instead, care must now be taken to ensure that the trend that has started does not falter.

“Will this go down as fast as it went up or get stuck in the middle like in the past?” Hotez asks. What the answer to that is ultimately lies in the hands of all Americans.

And Fauci also warned at the end of the ABC interview: “You should never be too sure when dealing with the virus. It has surprised us in the past.”