According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Americans may not be able to return to the way things were before the coronavirus pandemic until the end of next year.
Fauci told MSNBC it would be long before the majority of the population receives a coronavirus vaccine.
“By the time you mobilize the distribution of the vaccinations, and you get the majority, or more, of the population, vaccinated and protected that’s likely not going to happen until the mid or end of 2021,” Fauci said.
He continued, “If you’re talking about getting back to a degree of normality, which resembles where we were prior to COVID, it’s going to be well into 2021. Maybe even towards the end of 2021.”
Watch his remarks below:
Dr. Fauci discusses distributing the coronavirus vaccine to the public and returning to "normality":
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 11, 2020
"If you're talking about getting back to a degree of normality, which resembles where we were prior to COVID, it's gonna be well into 2021. Maybe even towards the end of 2021." pic.twitter.com/FHhdWhSsFb
During a panel discussion with doctors from the Harvard Medical School on Thursday, Fauci indicated the United States would face a challenging fall and winter, as IJR previously reported.
President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has come under fire after he told journalist Bob Woodward he “wanted to always play” the outbreak down, as IJR previously reported.
Fauci told Fox News on Wednesday he “didn’t get any sense” Trump was downplaying the coronavirus, as IJR previously reported.
He said Trump “really didn’t say anything different” than what the coronavirus task force discussed with him.
During his press briefing on Thursday, Trump told reporters he “didn’t lie,” instead, he said, “We have to be calm, we can’t be panicked.”
More than 6,451,800 Americans have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 192,500 have died as of Friday afternoon.
On Sept. 10, the United States reported at least 915 new coronavirus related deaths and 38,026 new infections.
There has been an average of 35,665 cases per day over the past week, which is a 16% decrease from the average two weeks earlier.