Fauci claims full-blown pandemic is over, hints at when Covid restrictions will end

02/10/2022 / By Ramon Tomey

Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic’s “full-blown phase” is over. He also hinted at when COVID-19 restrictions will end.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) made these remarks during a Feb. 9 interview with the Financial Times (FT). “There is no way we are going to eradicate this virus,” he told the paper. Fauci added that he looks forward to the population having sufficient immunity “that the COVID-19 restrictions will soon be a thing of the past,” and hopes it would be “soon.”

He also touched on local health authorities leading the way when it comes to making decisions related to COVID-19 instead of the federal government. “As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated. There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus,” said Fauci.

Contrary to what other experts claim, Fauci did not mention COVID-19 becoming endemic thanks to the more infectious yet milder omicron variant. He also opened up the possibility of COVID-19 reaching an “equilibrium,” in which the government no longer has to monitor infection levels. The NIAID director warned that local health departments could temporarily reimpose measures in cases where local transmission is detected.

Fauci’s Feb. 9 FT interview came amid several states dropping mask mandates. These include California, New Jersey, Delaware and New York – which are all led by Democratic governors. Despite this, some cities have opted to keep mask-wearing orders in place. (Related: States with mask mandates have higher COVID-19 case rates than Florida, which never had a statewide mask mandate.)

Federal data showed COVID-19 infections driven by the omicron variant has dropped across the United States. COVID-19 hospitalizations have also had a significant drop over the past two weeks.

Flip-flopping Fauci singing a different tune on boosters

Interestingly, Fauci made reference to natural immunity during his FT interview. He mentioned that before COVID-19 restrictions could be totally lifted, there should be “enough people vaccinated and enough people with protection from previous infection.”

Based on the NIAID director’s 2021 interviews with different outlets, he often downplayed natural immunity in favor of vaccines. He and other officials pushed for COVID-19 vaccines as the only way to stop the pandemic.

Fauci also responded to criticisms that public health officials had been overly reliant on the COVID-19 shots to keep the disease at bay. “Right from the beginning of the outbreak, we were testing for therapeutic approaches,” he said. The infectious disease doctor pointed to remdesivir, which was “found within the first month of two” of the pandemic, as one of these interventions “that can keep patients out of the hospital.” However, this drug was found to cause more harm than good – causing kidney failure in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Fauci also touched on booster doses in his interview. According to the White House chief medical adviser, he does not think every American would need regular vaccine boosters to stay protected against COVID-19.

“It will depend on who you are. But if you are a normal, healthy 30-year-old person with no underlying conditions, you might need a booster only every four or five years.”

His recent interview contradicted remarks he made months prior. In August 2021, Fauci insisted that Americans will “likely” need to be boosted against COVID-19. “We’re already starting to see indications of some diminution [in vaccine-induced immunity.] Inevitably, there will be a time when we’ll have to get boosts. No vaccine, at least not within this category, is going to have an indefinite amount of protection,” he said at the time.