Fauci sees US gaining control over pandemic by fall of 2021

The leading US infectious disease specialist, Dr Anthony Fauci, has said he foresees America achieving enough collective COVID-19 immunity through vaccinations to regain "some semblance of normality" by fall 2021.

Fauci's remarks came during an online discussion of the pandemic with California Governor Gavin Newsom, who announced at the outset that a highly infectious coronavirus variant originally found in Britain has been detected in his state, a day after the first known US case was documented in Colorado.

The coronavirus variant B.1.1.7 had been confirmed earlier in the day in a Southern California patient.

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To this end, a not-so surprised Fauci, by his own admission, said the additional cases of the variant would likely surface around the nation and that the mutating nature of such viruses is normal.

"They make a living out of mutating. The more you mutate, the more you replicate," he said, saying that the overwhelming majority of mutations are "irrelevant." But, he added, "It appears that this particular mutation does make the virus better at transmitting from one person to another."

However, individuals infected with earlier forms of SAR-CoV-2 "don't seem to get re-infected by this," Fauci said, meaning that any immunity acquired from the coronavirus "is protective against this particular strain."

He also stressed that the so-called UK variant is believed to be no more severe in the symptoms it causes and possesses no special ability to evade the antibodies induced by the newly approved COVID-19 vaccines now in distribution.

Medical experts attribute the heightened contagion to the arrival of colder weather and the failure of many Americans to abide by public health warnings to avoid social gatherings and unnecessary travel over the year-end holiday season.

In his comments on Wednesday, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and an advisor to Biden, said he was confident that early glitches in the vaccine campaign will be overcome.

"As we get into January, the feeling is that we're going to gain momentum to be able to catch up," he told Newsom, saying he expected to reach vaccine "open season," with immunizations becoming widely available to the general public on demand, by April.

Assuming that the broad vaccination campaign progresses as it should through May, June and July, "By the time we get to the early fall, we will have enough good herd immunity to be able to really get back to some strong semblance of normality - schools, theaters, sports events, restaurants," Fauci said.

The new variant has been detected in several European countries, as well as in Canada, Australia, India, South Korea and Japan, among others.

The US government on Monday began requiring all airline passengers arriving from Britain - including US citizens - to test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of departure.

The US government may expand coronavirus testing requirements for international air travellers beyond Britain as early as next week.

The US has so far lost 338,000 to Covid-19. In addition to upending daily social life in America, the pandemic has stifled the economy, idling millions of workers at numbers not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

On Tuesday, President-elect Joe Biden warned that it could take years to inoculate most Americans given an initial vaccine distribution rate that has lagged far behind the promises of the Trump administration. He called on Congress to approve greater funding for the endeavour.