Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted Sunday that life in the U.S. can be “close to back to normal” by next Mother’s Day if an “overwhelming proportion of the population” is vaccinated.
Asked what he expects the country will look like by next Mother’s Day, Fauci told ABC’s “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos, “Well, George, I hope that next Mother’s Day, we’re going to see a dramatic difference than what we’re seeing right now. I believe that we will be about as close to back to normal as we can. And there’s some conditions to that, George.”
“We’ve got to make sure that we get the overwhelming proportion of the population vaccinated,” he continued. “When that happens, the virus doesn’t really have any place to go. There aren’t a lot of vulnerable people around. And where there are not a lot of vulnerable people around, you’re not going to see a surge. You’re not going to see the kinds of numbers we see now.”
“That being the case, I think we can approach what we used to remember as normal before all of this tragedy happened,” Fauci added.
WATCH:
Fauci says we can get “close” to normal next Mother’s Day but there are “some conditions to that” (everyone has to get vaccinated) pic.twitter.com/fkCMrr1gvz
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Earlier in the interview, Stephanopoulos asked Fauci how best to convince “the hold-outs” to take the COVID-19 vaccine amid the plummeting rates of vaccine demand.
“Well, you know it is a smaller group, George, you’re absolutely correct, that seem to be recalcitrant,” Fauci replied. “So there are two major ways, I believe, that we can address that problem.”
Fauci continued:
One is to get trusted messengers, people who they trust, to get to them to convince them why it’s important. Those messengers could be anything from sports figures to entertainment figures to clergy or even to their family doctor to explain and convince them why it’s important for their own health, for that of their family, and for the community in general.
But the other way is what we’re doing, is to make it extremely easy for people to get vaccinated. I mean, typical example, [is that] now, we have 40,000 pharmacies where you can actually just walk in, no computer, no online, no appointment, just walk in and get vaccinated. As well as mobile units that are going out.
So those are the two major ways, I believe, we can just get into that group that really seems to be recalcitrant to getting vaccinated.
Last week, Fauci indicated that he believes the pandemic is far from over, telling CNN host Wolf Blitzer that the U.S. is only in “the bottom of the sixth” inning in its battle against the virus.
“We’re going in the right direction; we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but now’s not the time to declare victory,” he said. “It’s the time to get more and more people vaccinated, just the way the president said today. We want to get to that goal; it’s a doable goal, and I believe we’ll get there.”
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