Dr. Fauci Slips Up And Changes The Number Of Americans Needed For Herd Immunity


Dr. Anthony Fauci is trying to deny that he deliberately pushed back the finish line for when the country would have enough people vaccinated against COVID-19 to reach herd immunity.

Fauci claims to have been previously offering “guestimates” but others are calling it a “confession.” The doctor told The New York Times, “When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent…”

“Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it,” he continued, “I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.”

In later interviews, Fauci tried to direct attention to other parts of that Times report where he compared COVID-19 to measles, stating that he would “bet my house that COVID isn’t as contagious as measles.”

“Measles is about 98% effective vaccine; the COVID-19 vaccine is about 94%,” he explained. “When you get below 90% of the population vaccinated with measles, you start seeing a breakthrough against the herd immunity, people starting to get infected, like we saw in upper New York State and in New York City, with the Orthodox Jewish group, when we had the measles outbreak.”

“So I made a calculation that COVID-19 is not as nearly as transmissible as measles,” Fauci added and stressed that measles is “the most transmissible” virus.

Still, Fauci remained firm on his new guess of 75-80% of Americans needing to be vaccinated before the country would reach herd immunity.

“I think 75-80% for herd immunity for COVID-19 is a reasonable estimate, and in fact, most of my epidemiology colleagues agree with me,” Fauci said.

He went on to say that he is doing all he can to encourage people, not just in the United States but all over the world, to get the vaccine.

When questioned as to when he thought the country would reach the threshold for herd immunity, Fauci said it could be March before the vaccine is available to the general public.

In this case, general public vaccinations beginning in April would mean potentially reaching herd immunity around the end of summer even though numbers projected by Operation Warp Speed are still lower than they were when the vaccine was still awaiting approval.

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