(Washington) One last time, from the podium of the White House press room, the Dr Anthony Fauci on Tuesday urged Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, before stepping down as the president’s pandemic adviser next month.
“Please, for your safety and that of your family, do your updated COVID-19 booster as soon as you are eligible,” the 81-year-old immunologist said, in what he called his “final message”.
A booster dose specifically targeting the Omicron variant has been authorized since this summer in the United States, but only 35 million Americans, or 11% of the eligible population (from 5 years old), have so far received this shot.
The White House, which insists that vaccination against COVID-19 will now be annual, like the flu, launched a six-week “sprint” on Tuesday to convince more Americans to roll up their sleeves by the end of the year. ‘year.
Authorities fear a wave of infections during the winter, fueled by the holiday season, when the country is also facing an epidemic of influenza and another respiratory virus (RSV).
According to a new study from health authorities on Tuesday, this booster dose against COVID-19, called “bivalent”, because it targets the Omicron variant in addition to the original strain of the virus, effectively reduces the risk of developing the disease: approximately 30% when performed two or three months after the previous dose.
“When I see people in this country not getting vaccinated, because of divisions and ideological disagreements, for reasons that have nothing to do with public health, as a doctor, it pains me,” said said Anthony Fauci.
First adviser to Republican President Donald Trump before Democrat Joe Biden, the Dr Fauci found himself embroiled in countless controversies, he who had always been careful to stay away from politics. In 2020, at this same White House podium, he politely corrected President Trump several times.
“The way to counter misinformation is to do everything, as often as possible, to give correct information,” he said on Tuesday.
The COVID-19 will have represented only “a fragment” of his career, underlined the one whose work to fight against the AIDS epidemic is recognized worldwide.
He will also leave in December his position as director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which he held for 38 years.
“What I would like people to remember is that every day, for all these years, I gave everything I had,” he said.