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The director of the American Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, believes that covid-19 will cease to be a pandemic due to vaccines, but advises not to “lower your arms” because he predicts that the coronavirus is endemic.
“I doubt we’ll eradicate it. We have to plan because it’s something we may need to keep under chronic control. It could become endemic, something we need to beware of. It certainly won’t continue to be pandemic for much longer, because I believe vaccines will change.” he said this Thursday during a webinar with the Royal Institute of International Relations (Chatham House).
However, the epidemiologist also stressed the need to continue to adhere to guidelines to prevent transmission of the virus, namely the universal use of masks, physical social distance, avoiding crowds, socializing outdoors instead of enclosed spaces and washing. the hands.
“It sounds so simple. But people equate it with imprisonment and there is no appetite for imprisonment, there is fatigue with covid in the US and the rest of the world,” he acknowledged, emphasizing the importance in the US of different states that implement more uniformly. these rules because the situation in the country “is very difficult”.
Fauci warned of the risk of people failing to comply with recommendations and restrictions due to results announced Monday by American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German biotech company BioNTech that the vaccine they developed demonstrated 90% greater efficacy.
“Don’t stop shooting because the cavalry is coming. Don’t lower your weapons, it’s better to keep fighting because they haven’t arrived yet. Help is on the way, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Don’t give up, don’t despair, the end is in sight. It is. I have to insist on public health measures, “he added.
Fauci said that the fact that SARS-Cov-2 is an RNA-type virus means that it is constantly mutating, but “most mutations are not necessarily functionally relevant,” and he doesn’t expect, based on of other viruses of the same type over time, which becomes more virulent.
“But I don’t think it will necessarily interfere with the vaccine or the therapies,” he said.
Going forward, regardless of the “general approach” that President-elect Joe Biden introduces in January when he takes office, he argues for the need for further treatment for the early stages of the disease.
“Studies show that dexamethasone and remdesivir have positive effects later on, when people are hospitalized, even when they have a ventilator that receives oxygen (…) We need and have promising results, which I think will improve in the time, monoclonal antibodies against the virus, to prevent people from having to go to hospital, as well as direct antivirals, “he added.
Despite turning 80 in December and leading the Institute for 36 years, Fauci said he does not intend to retire and that, in addition to covid-19, he wants to develop measures to combat other serious diseases such as malaria or tuberculosis.
“We have a lot to do in terms of global health and I will not leave without solving them [doenças]”he promised.
The covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 1,285,160 deaths in more than 52.1 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP.
In Portugal, 3,103 people have died out of 192,172 confirmed cases of infection, according to the latest bulletin of the Directorate-General for Health.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.
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