Surgeon General Warns ‘This Pandemic Isn’t Over’ as Covid Cases Rise in U.S.

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned on Sunday that “this pandemic isn’t over” and getting more people vaccinated right now is crucial.

Covid cases have been rising in the U.S., and data from the CDC shows the country has averaged roughly 29,000 cases a day in the past week.

Chris Wallace brought up those figures to Murthy and asked, “Is this a new wave of covid-19?”

“I’m concerned about what we’re seeing in the country right now,” Murthy responded. “We’re seeing increases in cases, particularly in parts of the country where the vaccination rates are low.”

He emphasized that vaccinated people still have “a high degree of protection’ and that 99.5 percent of all covid-19 deaths right now are among unvaccinated people.

Wallace honed in on surges in four states in particular, including California and Florida.

“Florida alone accounts for one in five of the new cases,” he said. “So what do you say to the governors and the public health officials in those states?”

Murthy responded, “What I would say to them is what I would say to the general public, Chris, which is that this pandemic isn’t over, we have to be cautious, and we’ve got to do everything we can to get people vaccinated. That stands as the single most effective pathway we have to keeping people safe, protecting their families, and ending this pandemic.”

Wallace brought up Los Angeles County imposing mask mandates for everyone and asked, “Does that send the wrong message — 1) that it doesn’t follow the science about the fact that vaccinated people are protected, and 2) the fact that they have to wear masks too makes the unvaccinated much less likely, gives them much less incentive to get the vaccine?”

Murthy said LA County and other places are just considering ways to mitigate rising covid-19 cases, and “masking constitutes one of those mitigation measures.”

You can watch above, via Fox News Sunday.