Fauci explains how the U.S. can avoid a later surge in COVID-19 cases

Dr. Anthony Fauci.
(Image credit: Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)

Dr. Anthony Fauci wants Americans to know that there's a way to avoid surges in coronavirus cases later this year, and it involves a majority of the adult population going out and getting COVID-19 shots.

During a Thursday interview with The Washington Post, Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said if the United States can get to President Biden's goal of 70 percent of adults receiving at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by July 4, "there will be enough protection in the community that I really don't foresee there being the risk of a surge."

Earlier surges occurred "at a point when virtually no one in the country was vaccinated," Fauci said, so if you couple "highly effective" vaccines with "a substantial proportion of the population" becoming vaccinated, "the chances of there being a surge are extraordinarily low, I mean quite, quite low." As of Thursday, 47.9 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.