The man that oversees the deadliest pandemic in our lifetimes – who happens to be the highest-paid official in the U.S. government – is sounding a continued warning about the unvaccinated causing a fifth wave of COVID-19 in the U.S.
"The problem is, as we all know, we still have approximately 66 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not vaccinated," National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Director Anthony Fauci told "Fox News Sunday."
"The degree to which we continue to come down in that slope will depend on how well we do about getting more people vaccinated."
Dr. Fauci did not discuss the settled science that has revealed even vaccinated Americans can contract and spread COVID-19, particularly if they have minimal symptoms and unwittingly interact closely with others without using mitigation protocols like social distancing or masking.
Still, Fauci blames the unvaccinated – which critics argue many might have natural immunity from having overcome COVID-19 – for surges of the pandemic in the U.S.
"If we don't do very well in that regard, there's always the danger that there'll be enough circulating virus that you can have a stalling of the diminishing of the number of cases and when that happens, as we've seen in the past with other waves that we've been through, there's the danger of resurgence," Fauci told host Chris Wallace.
Fauci openly advocated for vaccinated Americans to celebrate holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas to celebrate freely with their fellow vaccinated family. He warned the unvaccinated to not do the same.
Being vaccinated, Fauci said, makes it "much easier for you to enjoy the kinds of things in society that you'd like to enjoy."
Fauci did stress data shows being vaccinated is very effective in defending an individual against serious infection, hospitalization, or death.
"When you're in a public health crisis, sometimes unusual situations require unusual actions," Fauci said, campaigning for mask and vaccine mandates to "protect society."
"I have stood for making science, data, and evidence be what we guide ourselves by," Fauci said about allegations of his complicity in the global coronavirus pandemic and the risky research done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology as funded by Fauci's own National Institutes of Health. "And I think people who feel differently, who have conspiracy theories, who deny reality that's looking them straight in the eye, those are people that don't particularly care for me.
"And that's understandable, because what I do, I try very hard, is to be guided by the truth, and sometimes the truth becomes inconvenient for some people, so they react against me. That just is what it is. There's not much I can do about that."
One very early and vocal critic has been Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kay, who has been an early proponent of natural immunity being an effective protection against COVID-19.
Science and data now supports Paul's long-held scientific hypothesis, leading to some high-profile clashes from Paul with Fauci and Biden administration health officials.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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