US Coronavirus: Dr. Anthony Fauci Says He Doesn’t Want To Cancel Christmas, He Just Wants People To ‘Be More Careful’

“As you can imagine, it is quite disturbing to me,” he said. “This type of travel is risky, especially if people start to congregate when they arrive at their destination in large crowds, indoors. I’m afraid if we do indeed see this happen, we will have an increase that will overlap the difficult situation we are already in. So it could be a very difficult January if these things happen. “

Fauci said that every time he talks about being careful as the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the country, he is accused of wanting to “cancel Christmas.”

“I don’t want to do that,” he said. “I want people to be more careful. I want them to limit travel as much as possible.”

“I feel very confident in what we are doing and that is the reason why I strongly recommend to everyone that when the vaccine is available to them they get vaccinated,” he said. “This is how we are going to leave this pandemic behind.”

Pfizer and Moderna test vaccines against the variant of the coronavirus

The variant has not been identified in the United States, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Tuesday, but “given the small fraction of American infections that have been sequenced, the variant has already could be in the United States without having been detected. “

Travel between the US and the UK, along with the high prevalence of the variant in UK infections, increases “the likelihood of importation,” the CDC said.

“We hope that the immunity induced by the Moderna vaccine will protect against the recently described variants in the UK – we will conduct further testing in the coming weeks,” Moderna said.

Pfizer is “generating data,” he said, on how well blood samples from immunized people “can neutralize the new strain.”

Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, told CNN that he hopes the two licensed vaccines will work against the new strain.

“We are starting to see some data that some of the monoclonal antibodies that we have continue to work against this new strain. Therefore, I hope that the vaccines will continue to be effective,” he said. “And if there is a possibility that (they are not) … we can make changes to the vaccine.

“But I don’t think that’s necessary. Certainly not in the short or medium term.”

The United States has not restricted travelers from the United Kingdom

The new coronavirus has mutated before, and both companies’ vaccines worked against variations of the virus.

More than 614,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered, says the CDC. Tens of millions more are expected in the coming months.

However, the distribution of vaccines should not cause Americans to let their guard down. Everyone should take precautions to limit exposure, as research published Tuesday in the journal Physics of Fluid warns that wearing a mask without social distancing may not be enough.

Researchers conducted tests on tight-fitting N95 masks, surgical masks, two-layer cloth masks, two-layer wet cloth and regular cloth masks, and only the N95 prevented the droplets from escaping, the magazine reported.

States add health mandates

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced statewide restrictions on capacity for businesses Tuesday and lowered limits for indoor and outdoor meetings.

Starting Saturday, companies in “most industries” will have to limit their capacity to 25%, Baker said, calling the decision to institute the measures “enormously difficult.”

Also, indoor meetings are now limited to 10 people and outdoor meetings to 25, Baker said.

Baker announced that the state had 3,760 new cases and 1,991 people were hospitalized, putting the facility “under significant pressure.”

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed an executive order expanding the rules on face coverings. With the addition of 17 counties, all but four of the 82 counties are under the directive, which expires on January 15.

“We all need to be more aware,” Reeves said in a press release. “You know what to do! Protect yourself and your family.”

California, which divides the state into five regions, will likely extend its stay-at-home orders that expire in two regions next week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday.

Authorities announced Tuesday that more than 32,000 Californians have recently been diagnosed, bringing the state total to more than 1.9 million. Deaths continue to rise, as the state added 247 deaths Tuesday for a total of 22,923.

The lack of ICU beds in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley continues to affect both regions, as capacity remains at 0%. Almost 19,000 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized in California, with 3,861 in intensive care units.

“California is in crisis mode in its healthcare systems,” said Thomas McGinn, executive vice president of Dignity Health, in a joint news conference. “We are breaking records that we do not want to break. Number of COVID admissions, number of patients with ventilators, number of patients in our ICUs and, sadly, the number of mortality that we are witnessing.”

But cases are declining in many states. On Monday the governor of North Dakota announced the relaxation of orders for the hours of operation of restaurants and bars. Beginning Tuesday, venues that had been closed for in-person service between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. were allowed to return to normal hours, Gov. Doug Burgum said.

“These companies are an important part of our economy and we are deeply grateful for their efforts and sacrifices to help curb the spread of Covid-19 and reduce active cases and hospitalizations,” he said.