Fauci Says 'Sheer Volume' of Omicron Cases Can Neutralise 'Less Severity' Factor
Additionally, a public health expert pointed out the possible need for a fourth jab.
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US President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said on Sunday, 26 December, that the "sheer volume of the number of [COVID-19] cases . . . likely will go much higher" due to the Omicron variant's high transmissibility.
Talking to ABC News, he warned about being optimistic regarding the severity of the virus, which is evidently low at the moment.
"If you have many, many, many more people with a less level of severity, that might kind of neutralise the positive effect of having less severity," Dr Fauci said.
Talking about the need for more vaccines, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, Ashish Jha, said that based on the data he's seeing, he is "pretty skeptical that we’re gonna need a fourth shot," The Guardian reported.
"Part of the question is that we have to ask ourselves what are we trying to do? Are we trying to block every single infection? Maybe that’s our goal. If that’s our goal then yes, maybe we need a fourth shot."
COVID cases are exploding in the US.
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the US has recorded nearly 4 million cases in the past one month.
President Joe Biden announced last week that 500 million free at-home rapid tests will supplied to US residents by next month to tackle the Omicron variant, which has been designated as a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organisation.
(With inputs from ABC News and The Guardian.)
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