Seven takeaways from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s talk to Silicon Valley
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s assertive and insightful voice came to the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday, where he appeared as a special guest at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s Annual Forum, a virtual version of the group’s once-a-year luncheon.
The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Fauci was interviewed by Leadership Group CEO Ahmad Thomas about the the state of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Here are some takeaways from their conversation, which has been edited.
We’re not in a “second wave” or “third wave” — because we never got out of the first wave:
“When we first got hit badly, it was dominated by what was going on in the New York metropolitan area. But we never got down to a real low baseline because the other areas of the country began to get ‘hot.’
We saw a resurgence of cases, dominated by the southern states of Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, and Southern California.
Now, fast forward to today, we’re seeing hotspots literally throughout the entire country.”
He’s really worried about this fall and winter:
“As we enter into the cooler months, much of what is going to be done is going to be done indoors. So I’m concerned that unless we do something to turn this around, we’re going to have a very difficult winter.
But if we have universal wearing of masks, physical distancing, avoiding congregate settings in crowds, doing things more outdoors, washing hands, (then) we do not necessarily have to accept the inevitability of these major surges.”
Expect vaccine news in November or December, with distribution starting early next year:
“We should be able to get an inkling of whether or not we have a safe and effective vaccine sometime in mid- to the end of November, or the beginning of December. I don’t know how effective it’s going to be, I hope it’s going to be somewhere around 70% to 75%.
If we’re successful, we will be able to start administering vaccine doses by the end of this calendar year or, more likely, in the beginning of 2021. So that hopefully by the time we get to the third quarter of 2021, we will have vaccinated the vast majority of people who want to get vaccinated.”
He knows why people are leery. But he promises transparency:
“I understand the skepticism that people have, for a number of reasons. There have been some mixed signals and some issues that have come out of Washington.
The way around that is to be completely transparent with the American public about what the process is.
Every vaccine trial has a Data and Safety Monitoring Board — a completely independent group of clinicians, vaccinologists, statisticians and ethicists who look at the data. They don’t answer to the President. They don’t answer to the pharmaceutical company.
Then the career scientists of the FDA will look at the data. And another independent committee, called the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, will look at the data and advise the FDA as to whether to grant either an ‘emergency use authorization,’ or actual licensure.
I can promise you that the process is independent of political manipulation. And I will be very open with the American public about my impression of whether or not this is safe and effective.”
'''There will likely be more than one safe and effective vaccine. Should you wait?
In the next month or so, we’ll see more and better therapies:
Don’t be like Dr. Fauci. He hasn’t taken a day off since January:'''
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/10/30/seven-takeaways-from-dr-anthony-faucis-talk-to-silicon-valley/