DeSantis requires big jury to investigate Covid vaccines. Hear Fauci’s response

All across the country, hospitalizations are rising due to COVID, the flu and RSV. And those numbers are expected to continue to increase even more as people are gathering together for the h of course.

So what is driving at all? Well, just before air, I talked Anthony Fauci about this, as well as his imminent retireme as director of the National Inst of Allergy and Infectious Diseas What? And Dr. Fauci,.

We now have these three respiratory viruses just overwhelming hospitals. And I've heard many a doctor and hospital administrator, quite frankly, say that what we're looking at is really unprecedented times he.

If an immunity gap is some of what's driving this. When do you think we close this or do you think this is the new with this convergence of these v No, it doesn't have to be the new norma for the simple reason that we have good countermeasure.

For at least two out of those th and the three you're referring to is COVID influenza and respiratory syncytial virus. We've got to get people to get vaccinated further to protect them. Their family and society We have a vaccine for flu.

And we're having a pretty bad and early flu season. If you look at the trajectory of the flu, it's almost a vertical line upward. But we have a flu vaccine that is matched well to the circulating strain. So there's no reason at all.

Not to get a flu vaccine in the same holds. True for the COVID booster, that is the updated B, a four or five bivalent that's available, but unfortunately only about 13% of the eligible people in this country have received th.

Now, RSV is a different story. We don't yet have a vaccine for RSV, but with regard to respiratory h and wearing a mask appropriately in an indoor setti I'm not talking about mandating I'm talking about the common sen of when you go into.

A congregate setting, particular when you have a lot of infection like that, that you think about the possibi of wearing a mask and one of the somewhat encouraging things is that RSV i It is. It is particularly for young chi.

And for the elderly. We have peaked there. It looks like it is starting to come down. So let's hope it continues to have a trajectory downward so we don't have a challenge wit as much as we had.

Over the past few weeks. It's good to see that that there may be some hope there on that one, at least in the interim, that they can be taking down, at least on one of these viruses One thing I wanted to ask you about,.

Because I've been long intereste is I know the NIH is studying the phenomenon of long COVID, and the CDC just put out a report saying that long COVID has played a part in the deaths of more than 3500.

So far as they've been studying in the pandemic. It's really the first kind of official attempt to quantify the number of long COVID deaths What is your biggest question about what still remains quite a with long COVID?.

Yeah, it is. It is a post acute viral syndrome that i It can be mild in the sense of having people have a lingering fatigue for a period of weeks to months. But it also in some individuals.

Can be rather incapacitating. In fact, even as you said, rarely, but leading to a series disease and sometimes death, but rather than then, then the mortality of it. The thing that we're concerned a.

If you look at the fraction of people and the fraction varies depending upon what you look at regarding criteria can be anywhere from 5% to up to 15 or more per giving the sheer volume.

And the quantitative nature of the number of people who are infected, even if a small, small percentag get long COVID That's a lot of people whose lives actually will be imp in a negative way by the persistence of these symp.

It's estimated that about a million people in this country cannot work, go back to their former employme because of the post COVID long COVID syndrome. So it's something that you're ri it's a bit mysterious.

We don't know the precise pathogenic mechanism. There's a lot of work going into trying to figure that out because if you want to do something about it, either to or to treat it, you've got to understand.

What the underlying mechanisms a We're making some progress there but we still don't fully underst Yeah, and really, no other virus in recent history has become so politicized, as is COVID 19. I mean, you have found yourself.

We've talked about this many tim at the center of some of that angry debate. Elon Musk just came at you and attacked yo But the latest now, Dr. Fauci, is Florida Governor Ron D He's now asking the Florida Supreme Court.

To greenlight an investigation into in the way he put it. Is any any and all wrongdoing in with respect to COVID 19 vaccine What's your reaction to that? I don't have a clue, Kate. What he's asking for. I mean, we have a vaccine that unequivoc.

Is highly effective and safe and has saved literally millions of lives. The commonwealth's fund has come out with a report just this past week that vaccinations that have been administered over this period of time,.

This last year and a half to two has saved 3.2 million lives. 18 million hospitalizations and approximately $1 trillion in So what's the problem with vacci I mean, vaccines are lifesaving. So, quite frankly, Kate, I'm not sure what what they're trying to do down there.

It kind of gets at a bigger issu I've been wanting to ask you, as in one of our final interviews in in your role in public health is just the one result of the pandemic has s that science has become a divisi topic, politicized and weaponized by some people.

Have you thought about how do you pull that back? How do you turn that around? You know, Kate, if I had an easy answer, I give it to you. But it's a very difficult situat You're absolutely correct. It has been politicized.

And it has been politicized in a that has actually caused lives, because if people don't get vacc which unequivocally is lifesavin because of political ideology or because of misinformation and disinformation, that causes And we've just got to get the American public, regardless.

Of whether you lean left, you le It doesn't matter at all. We're all in this together. We're all human beings and we're all susceptible to dis that can kill us. So if ever there was a time in s when we need to pull together and recognize.

That the common enemy is the vir not each other, we've got to get people to appreciate that. You know, like I said, I don't have an eas how we're going to do that. But when people's lives are being lost about this,.

Maybe that'll shake people up en to realize that we've got to start pulling toget and not against each other. I'm sure you have started kind of reflecting I know you wrote a very interest long piece, kind of a farewell piece.

In The New York Times, a message to the next generation of scient but it has been a wild ride at the tail end of your very lon in public health. I mean, as you head off, would you say you're more optimi or pessimistic.

When it comes to public health and the role that it will continue to play in our lives? Well, I am. And generally quite a cautious optimist about And I hear as another example.

Is I really am cautiously optimi because I believe that the better angels in societ will prevail. We're a good people in this coun And although there's divisivenes I believe we're going to pull ou because if you look at what science has done.

And with science applied to public health has don it has saved millions of lives in our country. And throughout the world. So I do hope we pull together and realize, as you say, although it's been a rocky road over the last three years,.

We know what happens when you all pull together, lives get saved, and that's what we're all about. And that is the necessary collaborative work between scien and public health. It's great to have you. Thank you, Dr. Fauci.

Thank you for having me. Good to be with you.

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