Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said in an interview on Thursday that the COVID-19 death toll of 1 million people in the U.S. is “incredibly tragic” and added that “many of those deaths were avoidable.”
“I mean, the idea of 1 million deaths in an outbreak, that is historic in nature. We have had nothing like this in well over 104 years. One of the parts about it that adds to the tragedy is that many of those deaths were avoidable, avoidable if people had been vaccinated,” Fauci told Amna Nawaz of PBS.
“It’s estimated that, if people had been vaccinated to a much greater extent right now, that vaccines would have avoided at least a quarter of those deaths, namely about 250,000.”
Fauci urged Americans not to let their guard down, reiterating a previous warning that the United States could see a surge in COVID-19 cases between the fall and winter.
“There is a threat and a likelihood that we’ll see a surge as we get into the fall and the winter. So we’ve got to be prepared. And we’ve got to be prepared with vaccinations, with boosters, with optimizing the therapy,” he said.
R&I – FS
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