WISH 2020: Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Says Pandemic Will End with a Vaccine

Doha, November 18 (QNA) - The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, spoke at virtual WISH 2020 in a special interview with The BMJs Editor in Chief, Fiona Godlee. Discussing the reasons why the pandemic has reached current proportions in the US, Dr. Fauci said: "The US is a very large country, and heterogeneous in so many ways; demographically, geographically, but particularly in the level of infection that we have in different places. It's a federalist society where an awful lot of responsibility can and is given to the states. What we had was not a uniform approach when we had the shutdown. "When we decided to open up the economy, some states did it in a way that was not appropriate jumping over stage 1 or disregarding it completely," he said. "We have done well in some respects, but it is patchy and not uniformly well as a country I think the lesson for countries like the UK is to try and have a unified approach that's centrally mandated." Commenting on 'long COVID', he said: "We're starting to see emerging information That's why we need to take this disease with a degree of humility and commit to preventing infection, through universal wearing of masks, avoiding crowds, distance, outdoor-better-than-indoor, washing hands, and doing everything we can to get a vaccine because it is not to be taken in a trivial way at all." Dr. Fauci explained why he continues to see patients: "If you ask me what my underlying identity is that always grounds me in the reality of what we need to do and gives me insight into the kind of emphasis we need, it’s my identity as a physician. It really helps me to understand disease pathogenesis but also to understand the impact that has on them and it inspires me." He concluded: "I believe the pandemic will end with an effective and safe vaccine that ultimately will be widely distributed throughout the world. But that is going to happen together with public health measures. I don't think it's going to be like measles where it's 98 percent effective even though it's a highly transmissible virus. But you have got to roll out the vaccine together with public health measures until the overall protection umbrella of protection essentially is all over the world. It's probably going to take a year or two to happen." WISH, an initiative of Qatar Foundation, is dedicated to capturing and disseminating the best evidence-based ideas and practices with a mission to create a healthier world through global collaboration. Virtual WISH 2020 is featuring more than 100 sessions and 300 global speakers to discuss evidence-based content and innovations addressing some of the world’s most pressing health challenges. (QNA)