KILLEEN, TX — Much of the world has been fighting against the COVID pandemic for years now but that fight might not be as big as it once was, at least in the U.S.
The fight against COVID-19 may be winding down in the U.S. according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
”We are certainly, right now in the country, out of the pandemic phase. Namely, we don’t have 900,000 new infections a day, and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now.” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of NIAID for the National Institute of Health.
It is a trend doctors with Baylor Scott& White and Mclane Children’s Hospital are seeing in Central Texas.
”From what we can tell, COVID is not the predominant virus spreading around right now," said Dr. Dominic Lucia M.D. "We still have other things going around, especially flu but, we’re doing much better right now. I’m cautiously optimistic about how good it looks with COVID at the moment.”
According to Fauci, it is due to higher levels of COVID immunity.
”If you add up the people who have been infected plus the people who have been vaccinated, and hopefully boosted, you have a rather substantial proportion of the U.S. population that has some degree of immunity that’s residual,” said Dr. Fauci.
Doctors in Central Texas are emphasizing the fact that Fauci said the U.S. is out of the pandemic phase and not the pandemic.
”Phase was an important part of that because if you don’t say phase, it sort of indicates that it’s all over.” said Dr. Lucia.
It means, COVID is still out there and should be taken seriously.
”Certainly, if you have comorbidities that make it more dangerous to you. It then, all of a sudden, no matter what the strain is, becomes more dangerous. So, we’ve still got to think about maintaining our vigilance in the ways that we can. Especially, if you’re in a high-risk group.” said Dr. Lucia.
It is recommended that you get vaccinated if you haven’t already and to wear a mask if you are high risk or in large crowds.
