Covid-19 guidelines released by the federal government Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that if US cases decrease as more Americans are vaccinated, the country “will be far more liberal” by the Fourth of July.
“If by the time we get to the Fourth of July, with the rollout of the vaccine, we get the level of infection so low — I’m not going to be able to tell you exactly what the specific guidelines of the (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) are, but I can tell you for sure (guidelines) will be much more liberal than they are right now about what you can do,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
When asked whether people would return to a more natural state without masks and distancing by the summer break, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, said, “Yes… there will be a greater degree of trust.”
Fauci’s remarks come nearly a week after the CDC issued new guidelines stating that people who have been completely vaccinated against Covid-19 can safely visit with other vaccinated people and small groups of unvaccinated people in certain situations.
Unvaccinated Americans can maintain social isolation from people who don’t live in their home, wear masks, and avoid crowds, according to the CDC, which has been instrumental in slowing the spread of the deadly virus over the last year.
Fauci also cautioned that the United States could face a situation similar to that in Italy, where an increase in cases due to new variants and other issues prompted the government to declare a new lockdown beginning Monday.
“They had a diminution of cases. They plateaued and they pulled back on public health measures,” he said. “They’ve opened restaurants. They’ve opened some of the bars. The younger people particularly stopped wearing masks. All of a sudden you have a surge that went right back up.”
He continued by saying, “That’s where we are right now. We can avoid that, Jake. We can avoid that if we continue to vaccinate people, get more and more protection without all of a sudden pulling back on public health measures.”
When pressed by Tapper about studies that showed no substantial difference in coronavirus spread in schools where students were six feet apart versus three feet apart, Fauci said the findings do suggest to him that three feet is sufficient and that the CDC is aware of the new results.
“I can tell you and promise you, I talk to the CDC, to (Director Rochelle Walensky) every single day,” he said. “She is acutely aware of the accumulation of data and the fact that her team will be acting on the data the way they always do.”
Later in the broadcast, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, weighed in on his state’s sluggish vaccine implementation, telling Tapper that Maryland would fulfill Biden’s proposal to compel states to allow all adults to receive vaccines by May 1 only if the federal government offers more doses.
In unveiling his strategy last week, Biden outlined new measures the administration hopes would help it meet the May 1 deadline, including broadening the types of clinicians that can administer vaccine shots. The new accepted list would include dentists, veterinarians, and paramedics.
