NIAID Director and White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci joined “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” for a wide-ranging interview on Friday, warning that he doesn’t think the COVID-19 virus can be eradicated.
“You can have elimination or you can have eradication,” Fauci told FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto, “and as I’ve said so often, I don’t think there’s a chance you’re going to eradicate this.”
“So what I’m thinking about is control, namely a level of control that is better than where we are right now,” he continued.
New York marked the fifth state to report a case of the omicron variant Friday, just two days after Fauci reported the first confirmed case of the strain in California.
Fauci said the omicron variant has an “under the radar” community spread.
“It’s very, very clear the extraordinary benefit of vaccines to protect you against infection, to protect you against severe disease, hospitalization and death,” Fauci said. “I would hope that even now, as we enter into this new era of omicron, that people would appreciate why it’s so important.”
Omicron strain transmissibility, symptom severity and vaccination protection is still being “sorted out,” according to Fauci, and scientists and researchers will learn information in “real-time” as cases develop and data is collected.
Responding to media criticism over his comments that he “represents science,” Fauci stood firm that he can take the heat and is “absolutely not” planning on stepping down.
“I’m not running a popularity contest for myself. I’m a physician, I’m a scientist and I’m a public health person,” he said.
“The only thing I care about, is helping to preserve and protect the health of the American public,” he added.