It's not likely that life will return to "some semblances of normalcy" before the end of next year, or even until 2022, even though a vaccine is near, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
"If we get a vaccination campaign, and by the second or third quarter of 2021 we have vaccinated a substantial proportion of the people, I think it will be easily by the end of 2021, and perhaps even into the next year, before we start having some semblances of normality," Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a University of Melbourne panel, CNN reported Wednesday.
Fauci said he is "very certain" that there will be a coronavirus vaccine in the "next few months." However, he also believes that political division and the fear of economic losses have affected how the United States is handling the crisis and restarting the economy.
"I was very much involved with Dr. Deborah Birx and putting together these guidelines, which were a gateway of Phase 1, Phase 2 – to tell you how you can gradually, safely, and prudently open up the country," Fauci said. "If everybody had done that uniformly, I don't think we would be in the position we're in right now."
However, it has become "very difficult" when wearing a mask in the United States has "almost become a political statement," said Fauci.
"I know that was carried in the news globally," he said. "In fact, people were ridiculed for their mask, depending upon which side of a particular political spectrum you were at."
Fauci added that it has been painful to watch such divisiveness to be centered around a public health emergency.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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