Biden confident Congress will pass a bipartisan Covid-19 relief package, White House says
The lack of candor and facts about the coronavirus pandemic during the Trump administration “likely did” cost lives last year, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN Friday.
“There’s no secret. We’ve had a lot of divisiveness, we’ve had facts that were very, very clear that were questioned. People were not trusting what health officials were saying … masking became a political issue,” he said. “That’s the reason why we’ve really got to restore trust and restore a unified approach.”
Fauci also criticized the separation of federal and state response to the coronavirus pandemic during the Trump administration, saying a collaborative approach is the way to go.
“You don’t want the federal government to do everything and you don’t want the states to do everything. But what we saw a lot of was saying, ‘OK states, do what you want to do.’ And states were doing things that clearly were not the right direction. And that’s unfortunate,” he said.
He added that the federal government should help states with resources and planning, while respecting each state’s issues.
“Not ‘you’re on your own, goodbye, see you around, later.’ That doesn’t work and a lot of states did not like that. They want to have the capability of making their own decisions, but they also need resources and they need help.”
As the Biden administration aims to vaccinate 100 million people in 100 days, Fauci said issues in states need to be figured out to overcome the lag in inoculations. About 70% to 85% Americans still need to be vaccinated for the US to reach herd immunity
Fauci added that he hopes the potential Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine’s — which is currently undergoing Phase 3 trials — will have an efficacy “in the ballpark” of 94% to 95%.
“It’s a single shot … 10-14 days later, you’re already starting to have a substantial amount of protection.”
In the meantime, even as Covid-19 hospitalizations decline in the US, Fauci says there is a need to be careful with variants of the virus present in the country at the point.
