Dr. Fauci joined local group to discuss uptick in COVID-19 cases
CHICAGO - A fall surge of coronavirus is hitting the Midwest especially hard. On Wednesday, Illinois reported more than 6,100 new cases, Wisconsin reported 3,800 new infections and Indiana officials announced just under 2,600 new cases.
Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke with a local group, "Chicago Ideas," about this new wave.
Throughout the interview, Fauci had some concerning and reassuring responses for the American public.
"We're in a very bad position when you think about where we're going, because the trajectory is going up. And then compound that with the holiday season coming, we have to do something different because we are clearly going in the wrong direction,” said Dr. Fauci.
Dr. Fauci says 40 states are showing upticks right now, and said that the country never got down to a manageable baseline amount of COVID cases.
He continued on to say that there is so much community spread that even maneuvers like contact tracing don't seem to be working as well as health officials would hope.
He also says all the precautions people are supposed to be taking - social distancing, handwashing, etc.-- aren't being uniformly done, which is contributing to this uptick.
On the flip-side, he offered optimism about the trustworthiness of a vaccine that he predicts will be successfully developed by December, saying that he thinks at least one, possibly two, of the six serious vaccine contenders in the running will be effective, and safe for use.
"By the time we get to the end of November, beginning or middle of December, if we have a safe and effective vaccine, and at that point, you should be able to think about the distribution of doses, end of December, beginning of January,” said Dr. Fauci.
When asked about "COVID Fatigue,” Dr. Fauci told the virtual audience that it's very understandable, but urged people to hang in there and be optimistic about the progress of the vaccine.