In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Fauci suggest that the Americans should continue wearing masks, washing hands, and practicing social distancing while waiting for a vaccine against COVID-19, but not to expect a nationwide lockdown or stay-at-home order.
“We’re not going to get a national lockdown. I think that’s very clear,” said Fauci. “But I think what we’re going to start seeing in the local levels, be they governors or mayors or people at the local level, will do, as you said, very surgical-type of restrictions, which are the functional equivalent of a local lockdown.”
According to Fauci, the nation could start returning to pre-pandemic normalcy by April or July of 2021, with hope of having an effective vaccine available in massive quantities at that time.
“If we get the overwhelming majority of people taking the vaccine, and you have on the one hand an effective vaccine, on the other hand, a high degree of uptake of the vaccine, we could start getting things back to relative normal as we get into the second and third quarter of the year, where people can start thinking about doing things that were too dangerous just months ago,” he said.
Fauci’s comments came after Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at University of Minnesota and member of Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s pandemic task force, recommended shutting down the economy for four to six weeks to drive down the number of CCP virus infections while the government pays workers and businesses that are out of work.
Biden, who declared himself winner of the presidential election amid allegations of widespread voter fraud, said he would be in favor of a nationwide lockdown if it’s what scientists considered necessary.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has pledged that his administration would “not be going to a lockdown.”
