Walter Cronkite school of
journalism at Arizona state
university.
Judy: Let's look at the latest
news on covid-19 and what is
needed now.
I spoke earlier today with
president Biden's chief medical
advisor. Dr Fauci, as part of
the cross cut festival where the
pbs station in Seattle, the full
discussion can be seen during
the festival which runs may 3
to 7.
Thank you very much for joining
So much to talk about.
But I want to start with new
data that we are learning about
how many Americans have been
infected with the virus.
Among all Americans and this
dates back to February, 60%
almost have been infected and
among children, 75%.
Had been infected.
Were you surprised by these
numbers?
And second of all, does this
change the way there should be
an official response to the
virus?
>> I wasn't terribly surprised
because we have been having this
virus around now for almost 2.5
years.
So, the idea that if you look
the sirology, the antibody tests
which determines whether you
have been infected is not
surprising that you have that
proportion of the population.
I think it is important for
people to realize that because,
although immunity following
infection and recovery does not
last indefinitely, it does give
variable degrees of protection
against severe disease if you
get re-infected.
If you add up the people have
been infected plus the people
who have been vaccinated and
hopefully boosted, you have a
rather substantial proportion of
the United States population
that has some degree of immunity
that is residual, either
residual from prior infection or
hopefully people who are getting
vaccinated and boosted.
We have 66% of the total
population has been vaccinated
and about half of them have been
boosted.
Judy: In connection with all of
this you live in the northeast.
We are hearing about more cases
here, including prominent
members of the public, including
law makers, the vice president
of the United States.
Many of them are having mild or
no symptoms at all.
What does that tell us about how
many more Americans raen't Gett
-- aren't getting tested as
regulate who may be walking
around with covid but not aware
of it?
>> I think you just hit the nail
on the head.
Because I am virtually certain
that we are under counting the
number of infections.
Just for the same reason.
There are many people, people
who I know myself, friends and
others, who get infected, who do
an antigen test, but don't
reported to anyone.
So the fact there are infections
that are not getting centrally
reported.
I do believe there is an
undercount.
We should do better than that,
we should probably be able to
track them much better, but the
good news is that the one you
mentioned and you are absolutely
correct.
The relationship or ratio
between hospitalizations and
infections is such that we're
not seeing a comparable increase
proportionately of
hospitalizations.
Unlike what was happening with
delta when, as the cases went
way up, the hospitalizations
also went up.
Judy: Should we have stricter
reporting requirements so that
the country can just keep better
track of how many cases there
are?
>> I would like to see a way
where when you get an antigen
test, you can put it in an app
and get some way of recording
it.
It would give us a much better
feel and a much better
understanding of the scope of
any rebound, even though it is
mild, we would really like to
know what the accurate counting
of cases is.
Judy: For those who are having
symptoms now, Dr. Fauci, there
has been a fair amount of
discussion lately about a
treatment, a drug called paxlovi
D.
A fair amount of confusion about
who should be taking it, who
shouldn't.
There is a sense it is not
available to many people who
need it.
It does require a doctor's
prescription.
We are told it is available but
it is not reaching everyone who
needs it.
What should we know about this
drug?
>> We are under utilizing what
is a highly effective therapy.
In clinical trials, when you
looked at the proportion of
individuals who were protected
from getting on and progressing
to hospitalizations it was close
to 90%>
we need to do more.
There are a lot of those doses
available.
We have sites where you can test
to treat, which means you can
come in to a pace, get tested
in if you are tested immediately
be put on therapy if you are
eligible.
We ordered tens of thousands
more of these drugs, namely
paxlovid.
And we are having sites, where W
E started out with 20,000
sites, we're increasing that to
30,000 with the aim of 40,000
doubling the number of sites.
I mea pharmacies and clinics
and places like that as well as
something that is important that
you alluded to is educating the
public and the health care
providers that this is something
that is available and that
should be much more widely used.
Judy: Let me broadness out and
ask you, here we are, the end of
April, the spring of 2022.
How close are we to the end of
this pandemic?
>> Well, that is an un
answerable question for the
following recent and I do not
want to be evasive the let me
tell you why I'm giving you that
We are certainly right now in
this country out of the pandemic
phase, namely we don't have
900,000 new infections a day and
tens and tens of thousands of
hospitalizations and thousands
of deaths.
We are at a low level right now.
If you're saying if we are out
of the pandemic phase in this
country, we are.
What we hope to do, I don't
believe in I've spoken about
this widely, we're not going to
eradicate this virus.
If we can keep that level very
low and intermittently
vaccinate.
I don't know how often that
would be.
That might be every year, it
might be longer in order to keep
the level low.
But right now we are not in the
pandemic phase in this country.
Pandemic meets a wide spread
throughout the world infection
that spreads rapidly among
people.
So, if you look at the global
situation, there is no doubt
this pandemic is still ongoing.
Judy: Dr. Fauci, thank you very
much.
>> Good to be with you.