Fauci Addresses ‘Covid Fatigue’ Amid Vaccine Rollout: We Need to ‘Hang in There a Bit Longer’

Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke with CNN’s Jim Acosta on Saturday and addressed the issue of “covid fatigue” through the country.

There has been a lot of encouraging news about the vaccine rollout across the country. As of this posting, the CDC reports over 100 million Americans have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine and close to 60 million people are fully vaccinated — including over half of all seniors.

However, public health experts like Fauci and CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky have warned in the past week that people still need to take appropriate mitigation.

Acosta asked Fauci on Saturday what measures he would want in place now to prevent further deaths.

Fauci said people need to continue following public health guidance. “We need the local people, the governors, the mayors and others, to be able to say we’re not out of it yet.”

“People say, ‘Well, you just want to confine us forever.’ No, this is not going to last forever, because every day that you get 4 million, 3 million people vaccinated, you get closer and closer to control,” he added. “So what we’re saying is double down, just hang in there a bit longer, and the vaccine and the vaccinations of people in this country are going to override the surge of the virus.”

Acosta asked about Americans “starting to say I’m tired of this, I’m done with this.”

“How do we prevent a new surge of cases if people have just said, ‘That’s it, I’m done. Dr. Fauci is a nice man, I like listening to him and so on, but I’m ready to move on, and move on with my life.'”

Fauci acknowledged that “Covid-19 fatigue is a real phenomenon” in the country 14 months into this pandemic.

“We are going to get to where they want to be, where I want to be, where you want to be, where we have enough people protected with the vaccines, that we can go out and watch the cherry blossoms, and we can go out and enjoy as we get warmer weather. It’s going to happen. It will, just don’t get careless about it.”

You can watch above, via CNN.