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Top US government scientist Anthony Fauci has warned that the worst of the pandemic could be yet to come, bringing the country to a “tipping point” as vacation travel spreads the coronavirus.
Speaking to CNN, Mr. Fauci said: “I share President-elect (Joe) Biden’s concern that as we move forward in the next few weeks, things could get worse.”
Joe Biden warned Wednesday that “America’s darkest days are ahead of us, not behind us.”
Fauci, who has been encouraging all eligible people to get vaccinated, revealed that she felt fine after receiving a first injection and experienced “nothing serious at all.”
Surgeon General Jerome Adams added on ABC that he, like Mr. Fauci, is “very concerned” about a post-holiday raise.
Vacation trips to the United States this year were down substantially from the holiday season, but remained significant.
Air travel averaged more than a million passengers a day for six consecutive days last week, according to the Transportation Security Agency.
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After the Thanksgiving holiday last month, coronavirus cases in the United States increased dramatically in December, with more than 200,000 new cases and sometimes more than 3,000 deaths a day.
With intensive care units in many hospitals nearing capacity, Mr. Fauci reiterated that the country could be facing “wave upon wave.”
But with new vaccines now moving across the country, going first to front-line health workers and those in long-term care facilities, Americans have finally seen a ray of hope.
Still, the initial vaccine shipments fell short of promises by the federal government.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was one of those who publicly criticized the process, but on Sunday pointed to signs of improvement.
“It is moving in the right direction,” he told CNN, after Trump administration officials apologized for deficiencies in vaccine delivery.
She said: “We are making great progress, but we need the federal government to do its part.”
About two million Americans have been vaccinated so far, well below the 20 million the Trump administration promised by the end of the year.
But Fauci played down the shortfall as a normal setback on a hugely ambitious project.
He said, “Whenever you implement a large program … like this, it always starts out slow at first and then it starts to gain momentum.”
Fauci added that he was “fairly certain” that by April all the highest priority people would have been able to get vaccinated, paving the way for the general population.
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