Fauci: Current virus plateau ‘unacceptable’

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, described current coronavirus levels of 60,000 to 70,000 new cases per day as “unacceptable..”

Fauci said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he is concerned that cases have begun to plateau after coming down “very sharply” of the past week or so.

“Historically, if you look back at the different surges we’ve had, when they come down and start to plateau at a very high level… plateauing at a level of [60,000] to 70,000 new cases per day is not an acceptable level, that is really very high.”

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head added that Europe, which is “usually a couple of weeks ahead of us in these patterns,” saw its numbers plateau before “about a 9 percent increase in cases.”

Fauci expressed misgivings about states that have announced the complete lifting of mask mandates and public restrictions, saying “we do want to come back carefully and slowly about pulling back on mitigation methods, but don’t turn the switch on and off, because it really would be risky to have yet again another surge, which we do not want to happen, because we’re plateauing at quite a high level.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s Chief Medical Adviser, says it doesn’t make sense to “turn the switch on and off” — opening and closing businesses and lifting COVID mitigation practices — says it makes more sense to “comeback carefully and slowly” pic.twitter.com/onC6fhAu4s

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 7, 2021

He also warned of people against letting their guard down as the weather becomes warmer, saying “we’ve been through this movie before.”

He added that, unlike 2020, vaccines will continue to “dramatically increase” in availability between now and the summer.