Despite the vaccination efforts being paced up in the U.S, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease said that Americans may need to continue wearing masks through 2022. This, Fauci continued, is required as a protection against the spread of the coronavirus and other emerging variants.
Fauci: Americans May Have To Continue Masking Still In 2022
Fauci said that the country is to reach a significant degree of normality by the end of this year since the COVID-related figures are being declined. However, for some time, the masks have to remain an important part of everyday life.
He said that he cannot predict when the country will go back to a normal state as that of pre-pandemic life, but it is coming. He added that it may or may not be precisely the way it was in 2019, November, but it will be much better than what the country is currently going through.
President Joe Biden also insisted the public continue wearing masks for the initial 100 days of his administration. Requiring interstate travelers and people involved with federal property to wear masks, Biden also signed various executive orders. Biden’s push on masks is more aggressive than his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Currently, there has been a significant decline in both deaths and contractions related to the coronavirus. Hence, the attention of the public health officials has been moved on to the other strains of the virus, especially to the B.1.1.7, or the UK variant, the South African B.1.351, and the Brazilian P.1.
As of now, the total reported cases of the U.K strain of the virus are 1,660 across the 44 states. Though it is not as much, various other states are also being hit by the other strains.
Fauci said that the important tool against preventing the spread of the virus is making the vaccination efforts more active and getting them into people’s arms as quickly as possible. He continued that as more and more people get vaccinated, he promises that relaxation can be seen from the stringencies.
The latest updates from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as of the present, the U.S has finished the distribution of 75 million doses of the vaccines against the coronavirus. Among them, 18.8 million people got fully vaccinated and 43.6 million received their initial shots.
Fauci added that as more people receive their vaccine doses, and also the level of virus in the local communities get declined, people can be completely free of masks as they were before the pandemic.
Fauci also came up with the suggestions by researchers that just a dose of the Pfizer vaccine was needed to protect against the coronavirus. On this, he said that science directly points out the continuation of the findings from the clinical trial. By this, Fauci indicated that the two doses provide the maximum protection against the virus as well as it’s emerging variants.