As COVID-19 cases begin to increase, with the BA.2 subvariant spreading rapidly, Dr. Anthony Fauci shared on Sunday that he is not surprised and that we may need to reassess our mitigation efforts.
Fauci gave an update on the virus and the pandemic during an interview on Sunday with ABC News' "This Week."
"[COVID-19] is not going to be eradicated, and it's not going to be eliminated," Fauci said. "So you're going to make a question and an answer for yourself, for me as an individual, for you as an individual."
Fauci shared that as COVID-19 continues to be a part of everyday life, Americans will need to know the risk levels for themselves as the virus isn't going away.
"It's going to be a person's decision about the individual risks they're going to take," Fauci said.
On top of that, the chief medical adviser to the White House said that with 21 different states reporting increases in cases, we might want to bring back mitigation methods like masking indoors.
Still, the doctor admitted that most of the country "is still in that green zone, which means that masking is not recommended in the sense of not required on indoor settings."
When it comes to large events and the threat of COVID-19 spreading, Fauci said that those putting them together need to consider the risk.
"I think the people who run functions, who run big dinners, who run functions like the White House Correspondents' ball, or thinking back, the Gridiron Dinner, are going to have to make a determination looking at the CDC guidelines and seeing where the trends are," Fauci said.
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Recently some health experts have taken shots at the CDC’s guidelines and what they recommended at the start of the pandemic.
Dr. Michael Osterholm with the University of Minnesota shared with News Talk 830 WCCO that he thinks there needs to be a “detailed review” of what the CDC has done, especially around masking.
"These cloth face coverings, these surgical masks are not effective, yet we led people to believe that, and I think we put people in harm's way," Osterholm said.
He continued saying "we spent billions of dollars in this country creating what many people thought were safer public spaces, and it was wasted money.”
Still as the virus remains prevalent Osterholm says that we need to make sure we are using high quality masks if any to protect ourselves during future surges.
When it comes to what health experts are doing to monitor the current state of COVID and those future surges, Fauci said, "we're watching it very, very carefully."
"Hopefully, we're not going to see increased severity," Fauci said.
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