US govt disease expert Anthony Fauci sees no return to normal from COVID-19 until 2021

United States' top infectious diseases official Anthony Fauci on Friday, September 11 said that it would take another year before life returns to ‘normality’ even if a successful COVID-19 vaccine is approved in the next few months. On a grime note, Fauci added that even though 30 US states have reported a fall in the cases, the pandemic is likely to worsen. 

Read: Anthony Fauci Says He Was In Surgery When Updated CDC Testing Guidelines Were Discussed

'No normal life untill 2021'

In an interview with MSNBC, Anthony Fauci said if people are planning to get back to normal, it is only going to be well into 2021 or even towards the end of 2021. Responding to US President Donald Trump’s claim that the US is “rounding the corner” on COVID-19, Fauci said that the current data on the virus is ‘disturbing’.

The US official further added that he completely disagrees with Trump on the COVID-19 vaccine because the statistics are disturbing and the US still is reporting 40,000 fresh cases per day.

Read: Trump Admits To 'playing Down' COVID-19 Severity In US

Donald Trump is in the eye of the storm again for his COVID-19 handling following explosive revelations in journalist Bob Woodward's upcoming book which states the US President confessing to downplaying the threat and severity of the pandemic.

Responding to the recent developments, Fauci said downplaying the threat is not a good idea. His came a day after reports indicated that an appointee of the Trump administration at the Department of Health and Human Services had tried to encourage officials at the National Institutes of Health, which also happens to be Fauci’s workplace, to steer the expert on his public comments.

In the interview, Fauci also warned people to be prepared for worse and said fall and winter will not be easy. He added that he gets depressed when he looks at the pandemic curve as it never really goes down the baseline.

Read: Fauci Unsure About What Donald Trump Meant By Saying 'rounding Up On Virus'

Earlier last month, Fauci had mentioned his observation that European countries closed 95 percent of their economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic while the United States only shut it by 50 percent. He blamed the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in the United States on lack of lockdown measures. 

However, Trump rebuked Fauci's remarks and said that the country has recorded more COVID-19 cases because authorities are conducting more tests than any other nation across the globe. 

The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has affected over 6.5 million people with 197,762 fatalities in just the United States. The US currently has the highest number of reported cases in the world, making it the epicentre of the deadly virus.

Read: Anthony Fauci Says US Govt Won't Make Coronavirus Vaccine Mandatory For Public

Also Read: Fauci Says COVID-19 Vaccine With 98% Effectiveness Hard To Achieve