Fauci Rejects Pandemic Being Close To Ending: ‘In The Bottom Of The 6th Inning’

 

Speaking with CNN host Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci continued pushing against any thoughts that the end of the coronavirus may be near, positing that America is only in “the bottom of the sixth” inning in its battle against the virus.

In baseball terms, the bottom of the sixth represents roughly two-thirds of the length of a typical baseball game, although if the score is tied, extra innings are added until one side wins.Blitzer asked, “Before I let you go, Dr. Fauci, you and I are major league baseball fans. What inning are we in as far as this Covid pandemic is concerned?”

“Well, you know, we’re at least halfway through,” Fauci replied. “I hope we’re seeing, and I do believe, Wolf, I’m not trying to be overly enthusiastic about what’s going on vis-à-vis the vaccine program, which is so successful. But we’ve really got to not declare victory prematurely. So we’re in the late innings, but it’s not over. That’s the thing we’ve really got to get people to appreciate. We’re going in the right direction; we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but now’s not the time to declare victory. It’s the time to get more and more people vaccinated, just the way the president said today. We want to get to that goal; it’s a doable goal, and I believe we’ll get there.”

Blitzer probed, “So you think the seventh, the eighth inning, late innings? What inning are you talking about?”Fauci answered, “How about the bottom of the sixth? Try that one, Wolf.”

Blitzer, gratefully, “I’ll go with the bottom of the sixth. That’s not too bad.”\

 

Fauci February 2020: “If you look at the masks that you buy in the drug store, the leakage around that doesn’t really do much to protect you. People start saying, ‘Should I start wearing a mask?’ Now, in the United States, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to wear a mask.”

Fauci, May 2020: “We can’t stay locked down for such a considerable period of time that you might do irreparable damage and have unintended consequences including consequences for health. And it’s for that reason why the guidelines are being put forth so that the states and the cities can start to reenter and reopen. So we are enthusiastic about reopening, and I think we can do it in a pace that would be reasonable and that would get us back as a society from a morale standpoint as well as the economy.”

Fauci, late July 2020: “I don’t think we need to go to lockdown again and shelter in place.”

Fauci, October 2020: “I’m not going to tell you anything. I don’t even know. It would be foolish to predict what is going to be better. The proof is in the pudding.”

Fauci, mid-November 2020: “I was talking with my U.K. colleagues who are saying the U.K. is similar to where we are now, because each of our countries have that independent spirit. I can understand that, but now is the time to do what you’re told.”

The Daily Wire reported in late December, 2020:

CNN host Dana Bash pressed Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Sunday over recent remarks that he made about the percentage of the population that would have to receive the COVID-19 vaccination for the U.S. to reach herd immunity.

“In the pandemic’s early days, Dr. Fauci tended to cite the same 60 to 70 percent estimate that most experts did,” The New York Times reportedlast week. “About a month ago, he began saying ’70, 75 percent’ in television interviews. And last week, in an interview with CNBC News, he said ’75, 80, 85 percent’ and ‘75 to 80-plus percent.'”