- Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing across the US right now, with the total number of cases since the pandemic began topping 19.4 million through Tuesday morning.
- In a recent interview, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci talks about the five things we all need to be doing now, in light of the worsening coronavirus pandemic statistics.
- The behaviors include frequent washing of hands, wearing face masks, and not congregating indoors with other people.
As of Christmas morning, here’s the latest about where things stand in the US regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
The most current data from Johns Hopkins University shows that more than 19.4 million coronavirus cases have been reported in the US since the start of the pandemic. Tragically, almost 330,000 deaths have also been attributed to the COVID-19 virus in the US this year. In a conversation about the reality behind those numbers on Tuesday with CNN, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci talked about how Americans can keep themselves safe from the danger that those numbers portend. “I want more people to be careful (or) we will have a surge that’s superimposed upon the difficult situation we are in already,” Dr. Fauci said.
This is how Dr. Fauci says we can prevent that, in addition to minimizing what “could be a very difficult January coming up.”
First of all, this is ominous and indicative of the opposite of what we should be doing right now — the TSA, for example, revealed that the US recently hit a pandemic-high travel record, with the agency having screened more than 4 million air travelers between last Friday and Monday of this week.
The behaviors that Dr. Fauci warns we should all be adhering to right now are no big secret and along the lines of what he’s been saying throughout the pandemic. They include wearing face masks, something that public health experts stress that Americans should get accustomed to through probably most of 2021. That’s partly because even though the first COVID vaccines have started to arrive, it will take many months until a critical mass of Americans has received the vaccine.
Additionally, according to Dr. Fauci, we all need to minimize being around people outside of our household as much as we possibly can — now more than ever. “If people start congregating,” he says, “when they get to their destination in larger crowds in indoor settings, I’m afraid that if in fact we see this happen, we will have a surge that’s superimposed upon the difficult situation we are already in.”
What else can we do? According to Dr. Fauci:
Don’t spend really any amount of time indoors, where lots of people you don’t know are congregating. When you are in public, maintain social distancing from other people, and don’t slack off on keeping your hands washed. Also, as many Americans as possible need to get the coronavirus vaccine.
“I feel very confident about what we’re doing, and that’s the reason why I strongly recommend to everybody and everyone that when the vaccine becomes available to them to get vaccinated. That is how we’re going to put this pandemic behind us.”
