Be ready to 'pivot' back to Covid-19 restrictions, Anthony Fauci warns leaders

Just be ready.

Belmont Lay | March 28, 2022, 11:57 AM

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Anthony Fauci, America’s chief medical adviser to the U.S. president, has warned leaders about the need to be prepared for future restrictions as infections could surge due to another Covid-19 variant emerging with new data coming out of the U.S. and UK.

Fauci, who advises US president Joe Biden, told the BBC Sunday Morning programme “we need to be prepared for the possibility” of “a more rigid type of restrictions” should another potentially harmful new variant emerge.

His warning comes in the wake of restrictions being eased in the western world with life supposedly returning to normal, but with the virus showing no signs of tapering off just yet.

Covid-19 cases have gone up, driven by the Omicron subvariant BA.2, and once again surging around the world.

Subvariant of Omicron

Fauci was asked about the possible necessity of future restrictions and he warned “we should be prepared”.

He said: "I don’t want to use the word ‘lockdown’ as that has a charged element to it, but I believe that we must keep our eye on the pattern of what we’re seeing with infections right now."

"We need to be prepared for the possibility that we would have another variant that would come along and then things change."

“And if we do get a variance that does give us an uptick in cases and hospitalisation, we should be prepared and flexible enough to pivot towards going back -- at least temporarily -- to a more rigid type of restrictions, such as requiring masks indoors.”

On what next winter will look like, Fauci added: “I think it’s really unpredictable. This virus has fooled us so often. We really don’t know and I think anyone who says they’re going to predict with any certainty what’s going to happen in the winter I think, is a bit of a stretch.”

Background

In England, the latest Office of National Statistics infection survey has estimated one in 16 people have the virus.

ONS data is considered highly reliable in its assessment in the prevalence of Covid-19 in the community there.

There has been a sharp uptick in UK hospital admissions in March.

However, the 2,227 number admitted on March 21 is still half the admissions of 4,580 at the peak of the second wave of the pandemic in January a year ago.

In the context of eased restrictions, infections appear less serious as Fauci did add that the surge "doesn’t appear to be associated with any increase in severity in the disease", despite increased hospitalisations.

Boris Johnson dropped all of England's restrictions in February 2022, with the Westminster government now using a “living with Covid” approach.

More than 600,000 people in the UK will be invited for a booster jab next week.

Top photo via The White House

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