Dr. Anthony Fauci says the U.S. is “going in the wrong direction” in the fight against the coronavirus as cases spike among unvaccinated Americans.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that a model predicting a worst-case scenario of 4,000 virus-related deaths a day without improved vaccinations rates isn’t out of the question.
“If you look at the inflection of the curve of new cases and, as you said in the run-up to this interview, that it is among the unvaccinated,” Fauci told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “And since we have 50% of the country is not fully vaccinated, that’s a problem.”
Fauci backed up assertions by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky that the pandemic presently is largely relegated to unvaccinated people.
Meanwhile, the highly contagious delta variant continues to ravage the country, with every state reporting an increase in cases from the week prior, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.
So far, 30 states have yet to fully vaccinate half of their residents, CNN reported, citing CDC data.
Fauci, who is President Biden’s chief medical adviser, told CNN that discussions among administration officials are taking place about revisiting mask guidelines and he is part of the dialogue.
