Dr. Anthony Fauci says the US will likely not return to life resembling “real normality” during the coronavirus pandemic until next year, according to a report.
“I would hope to get to some degree of real normality within a year or so. But I don’t think it’s this winter or fall,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The Telegraph on Sunday.
Fauci said that he anticipates a few cycles of the virus “coming back and forth” before the country is able to return to normal.
“We were successful in suppressing the virus in cities where there were major outbreaks – New York, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans,” he told the newspaper. “But we’re seeing several states, as they try to reopen and get back to normal, starting to see early indications [that] infections are higher than previously.”
He said that without measures to contain the virus, the states are at risk of experiencing a “full-blown” outbreak.
“The question is will they have the capability to do the appropriate and effective isolation, and contact tracing, to prevent this increase from becoming a full-blown outbreak?” Fauci said. “I’m concerned it’s happening. I hope the individual states can blunt that. It [the virus] could go on for a couple of cycles, coming back and forth.”
But Fauci was optimistic that there’s an end in sight to the pandemic, noting there were several potential vaccines in the works.
“This will end. As stressful and devastating as it is, it will end,” Fauci told the newspaper. “We are all in it together as a global community, and I do see the light at the end of the tunnel.”