Fauci voices hope for return to normalcy around February or March

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People line up outside of a free COVID-19 vaccination site that opened today in the Hubbard Place apartment building on Dec. 3, 2021, in Washington, DC. The DC Department of Health is stepping up vaccination and booster shots as more cases of the Omicron variant are being discovered in the United States.

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A woman gets vaccinated with an infant on her back at a shopping center near Buwi Secondary School on Dec. 15, 2021, in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe. The country has extended a series of measures, including mandatory PCR tests for arriving travelers, an overnight curfew and alcohol bans to combat the omicron COVID-19 variant, which was first identified in nearby South Africa. Dozens of other countries soon reported their own cases.

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A health worker administers the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to a police officer at a government hospital in Hyderabad, India on Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022. Healthcare and front-line workers, along with people above age 60 with health problems, lined up Monday at vaccination centers across India to receive a third vaccination as infections linked to the omicron variant surge. India calls these "precautionary" doses and not boosters.

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A man pulls his shirt up while his wife receives her fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine in a private nursing home in Petah Tikva, Israel, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. Even in relatively small, wealthy Israel, an early global leader against the coronavirus pandemic, the omicron variant is outpacing the government's ability to make and execute clear pandemic public policy. What once was a straightforward regimen of vaccines, testing, contact tracing and distancing for the nation of 9.3 million has splintered into a zigzag of rules that seem to change every few days.

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A child receives a dose of COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty vaccine for children at the children's section of the Lanxess Arena vaccination center during the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic on Dec. 18, 2021, in Cologne, Germany. Germany has launched COVID-19 vaccinations for children in the 5-11 age group this week as infection rates, which had skyrocketed in recent weeks, show signs of coming down, though experts are warning that the spread of the omicron variant could soon cause infections to rise anew.

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A man receives the vaccine at FieraMesse, the trade fair center of Bolzano, during a COVID-19 vaccination marathon in South Tyrol, on Dec. 11, 2021, in Bolzano, Italy. Italy's German-speaking north has one of the country's lowest vaccination turn-outs and high infection rates, with the onset of ski season and Christmas, efforts are underway to encourage inoculation against COVID-19.

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Creedence Ngatai-Baldwin, 12, gets his first COVID-19 vaccine with the Te Whanau O Waipareira vax team. The team is helping vaccinate locals in Papakura as part of the Whanau Ora campaign on Nov. 30, 2021, in Auckland, New Zealand. A network of Maori health providers is traveling around Northland and Auckland in New Zealand to bring vaccines to the Maori population who are vaccinated at a lower rate than the rest of the population.

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People rest after receiving their booster COVID-19 vaccines from soldiers of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) at the walk-in vaccine clinic at Chester Cathedral on Dec. 15, 2021, in Manchester, England. Soldiers of the British Army have been trained by the NHS to help the country's vaccination effort after the government announced it was accelerating its COVID-19 booster program due to concerns about the omicron variant.

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By Shant Shahrigian | New York Daily News

UPDATED: January 2, 2022 at 11:47 PM EST

If more Americans get vaccinated and boosted, the U.S. just might return to a semblance of normalcy by February or March, the country’s top infectious disease expert said on Sunday.

Hopefully, enough people get vaccinated “to the point that when omicron comes down to a low level, we keep it down at a low level enough that it doesn’t disrupt our society, our economy, our way of life,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I hope that as we get into February and March and such that we will be at that level of control,” he said, adding that he wasn’t making a prediction but voicing his personal hope.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a daily briefing at the White House in December. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

The pandemic has reached shocking new levels, spurred by the highly contagious omicron variant of coronavirus. The U.S. is seeing more than 300,000 new COVID cases per day for the first time since the outbreak began two years ago.

Fauci noted that recent evidence shows that the omicron variant, first found in Botswana and South Africa in November, is less severe than were previous versions.

“Given the large number of cases, we have not seen a concomitant increase in the relative percentage of hospitalizations,” he said. “Hospitalizations are often late, lagging indicators. But I still believe there is indication … the virus does seem to have lower intrinsic pathogenicity to it.

“We’re hoping that’s the case,” said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reevaluating its guidance on isolation, he said.

Last week, the CDC said people who test positive for COVID only need to go into isolation for five days, down from the previous recommendation of 10 days. The agency also said people don’t need a negative COVID test to resume normal activity.

The new guidelines drew allegations that the CDC was prioritizing businesses over employee welfare.

“There has been some concern about why we don’t ask people at that five-day period to get tested. That is something that is now under consideration,” Fauci said. “The CDC is very well aware that there has been some pushback about that. Looking at it again, there may be an option in that testing could be a part of that.”

Originally Published: January 2, 2022 at 11:28 AM EST