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

(Image credit: Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)

published 21 May 2021

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.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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