Fauci: Covid 19 cases are starting to come down quickly

The chief medical adviser of loomberg -- President Joe Biden expressed optimism that the omicron surge that has pushed Covid 19 infections and hospitalizations to records will soon peak, though that decline won't be uniform throughout the U.S. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Sunday that things are looking good. We don't want to get overconfident, but they look like they are going in the right direction right now. Fauci said that the infected areas are starting to come down rather sharply in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest, in line with the variant s trajectory in South Africa and other places. He believes that states in the South and West where cases are still rising will soon follow the same downward path, depending on vaccination rates.

He believes that you will start to see a turnaround throughout the country. There may be more pain and suffering with hospitalizations in areas of the country that have not been fully vaccinated or have not received boosters. Fauci sketched out two longer-term scenarios for Covid -- 19 as the pandemic enters its third year.

The first is that Covid 19 becomes less virulent and can be controlled.

He said that you re not eradicating it, but it gets down to such a low level that it is essentially integrated into the general respiratory infections that we have learned to live with.

He said that the emergence of a more dangerous variant is the worst-case scenario. He said this possibility is more important for people to get vaccinated and receive booster shots, and to make testing and medical treatment more widely available.