Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, appeared on multiple political talk shows on Sunday morning, discussing COVID-19 vaccinations and the delta variant of the coronavirus.
Guests also discussed the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that there is no need for Americans to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, according to current data by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) and Federal Drug Administration (FDA).
“I have been of this opinion and I remain of that opinion that I do believe at the local level, Jake, there should be more mandates, there really should be. We’re talking about life and death situation. We’ve lost 600,000 Americans already, and we’re still losing more people. There’ve been 4 million deaths worldwide. This is serious business,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“The bad news is that we have a very nasty variant, the good news is that we have a vaccine that works against it,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner who sits on Pfizer’s board of directors, said on Sunday that the nation has “probably missed a window” for providing a booster shot to protect against the more infectious delta variant of COVID-19.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said that he wants House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other leaders within the party to call out “garbage politicians” who are playing into fears of Americans who are hesitant or reluctant to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“If you do drive-thru voting, are you going to have people in the car with you?” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) asked. “It could be somebody from your employer or somebody else they may have some coercive effect on the way that you would cast your ballot, which is contrary to you going into the ballot box, alone and no one there watching over your shoulder.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said on Sunday that President Biden made “the best of many poor choices” regarding U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, arguing that the withdrawal of troops “is not closure, this is a transition.”
John Kirby, assistant to the secretary of Defense for public affairs, on Sunday said the U.S. has not lost its leverage against the Taliban even though the Pentagon is swiftly withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.
