US

Fauci says political divisions contributed to ‘stunning’ US Covid-19 death toll

America should never have been hardest-hit country, says top infectious disease expert

Dr Anthony Fauci: said the pandemic arrived in the United States as the country was riven by political divisions in which wearing a mask became a political statement rather than a public health measure. Photograph: Eric Baradat/Getty Images
Dr Anthony Fauci: said the pandemic arrived in the United States as the country was riven by political divisions in which wearing a mask became a political statement rather than a public health measure. Photograph: Eric Baradat/Getty Images
Tue Feb 23 2021 - 00:03

Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, said yesterday that political divisiveness contributed significantly to the “stunning” US Covid-19 death toll, which on Monday passed 500,000 lives lost.

The US had recorded more than 28 million Covid-19 cases and 500,054 fatalities as of Monday afternoon, according to public health data. In an interview with Reuters, Dr Fauci on Monday said the pandemic arrived in the United States as the country was riven by political divisions in which wearing a mask became a political statement rather than a public health measure.

“Even under the best of circumstances, this would have been a very serious problem,” Dr Fauci said, noting that despite strong adherence to public health measures, countries such as Germany and the UK struggled with the virus.

“However, that does not explain how a rich and sophisticated country can have the most percentage of deaths and be the hardest-hit country in the world,” said Dr Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a top adviser to President Joe Biden.

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“That I believe should not have happened.”

While the United States has just about 4 per cent of the global population, it has recorded nearly 20 per cent of all Covid-19 deaths.

Contagious variants

Dr Fauci said the emergence of more contagious variants of the coronavirus, especially ones from South Africa and Brazil that have been shown to reduce the immunity from natural infections and vaccines, have made it challenging to predict when the nation will be able to put the pandemic behind it.

Dr Fauci and Mr Biden have said the United States should return to something approaching pre-pandemic normal life around Christmas.

That could change, he cautioned. The variants also change the equation when it comes to herd immunity, in which a population becomes protected from infection because of high levels of immunity from vaccines or infections.

Asked whether that is still achievable, Dr Fauci said, “I think we can get herd immunity at least against getting sick.” – (Reuters)