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Dr. Anthony Fauci defended himself on Sunday from critical accusations of moving the goal posts on what needs to happen before America can reach herd immunity against the coronavirus.

CNN’s Dana Bash interviewed Fauci on State of the Union, and after getting his thoughts on the possible covid surge the country might see after the holidays, she brought up his recent comments about herd immunity to The New York Times. In the past, Fauci said America would need a covid infection/vaccination rate of approximately 70 percent before herd immunity would be possible, but now he is bumping up his estimates and saying it might be closer to 90 percent.

“My question is why weren’t you straight with the American people to begin with?” Bash asked him.

Fauci retorted that he was working with “pure estimates” and “we have to realize that we have to be humble and realize what we don’t know.”

“The calculations that I made 70, 75 percent, it’s a range. The range is going to be somewhere between 70 and 85 percent. The reason I started saying 70, 75 percent, I brought it up to 85. That’s not a big leap. It was based on calculation and pure extrapolations from measles. Measles is about 90 percent effective vaccine. The covid-19 vaccine is about 90, 95 percent.”

Fauci went on to say measles is more transmissible than the

coronavirus, but he used it as an extrapolation point that led him to his figures. The interview continued with him being asked to elaborate on his herd immunity projections, and how long it might might take for them to be realized.

“I think we all have to be honest and humble,” he said. “Nobody really knows for sure, but I think 70 to 85 percent for herd immunity for Covid-19 is a reasonable estimate.”

Watch above, via CNN.

Tags: Anthony Fauci, Dana Bash