Dr. Fauci Calls This Your "Best Defense" Against COVID
Although coronavirus cases are going down nationwide, many experts are warning against letting your guard down, just as some cities reduce restrictions. This puts the onus on you to avoid the new COVID-19 variants, which have proven to be more transmissible, and possibly more deadly. The UK variant may be the US's dominant strain by the end of next month. "That's the sobering news," says Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the President and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at yesterday's White House COVID-19 Response Team Briefing. Read on for his advice about the "best defense" against COVID—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don't miss these Sure Signs You've Already Had Coronavirus.
Dr. Fauci Says the "Best Defense" Against COVID is to Get Vaccinated and Follow the Public Health Measures
At the briefing, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was the first to issue a warning. "I'm asking everyone to please keep your guard up. The continued proliferation of variants remains of great concern and is a threat that could reverse the recent trends, positive trends we are seeing," she said. "Please continue to wear a mask and stay a six feet apart from people you don't live with, avoid travels, crowds, and poorly ventilated spaces and get vaccinated when it's available to you. I recognize that the pandemic has taken an enormous toll on all of us, but if we all work together and take these prevention steps, we can finally turn the tide."
Dr. Fauci echoed these words. "Underscoring what Dr. Walensky just said, the two things that we can do is make sure we adhere to the public health measures," he said. Additionally, we need to "get as many people vaccinated as quickly as we possibly can. That's the best defense against the evolution of variants."
"I think in the words of Dr. Walensky and the CDC now is not the time to be traveling if at all possible," added Andy Slavitt, Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response Team.
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You Must Take Steps Beyond Vaccination, Say Experts
Other experts agree with Fauci and Walensky. "It is absolutely essential that we continue to do steps beyond vaccination to keep this under control," Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN. "The reason for that is, that the more this virus is allowed to spread in our communities, the more we're going to see these variants spreading."
"And if the vaccines aren't as effective against some of these variants, then we could see the gains that we're so excited about right now, we could see those reversed in a very short amount of time."
So follow Fauci's fundamentals and help end this surge, no matter where you live—wear a face mask, social distance, avoid large crowds, don't go indoors with people you're not sheltering with (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene, get vaccinated when it becomes available to you, and to protect your life and the lives of others, don't visit any of these 35 Places You're Most Likely to Catch COVID.
