National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted to the New York Times in an interview published Thursday that he has shifted the targets for “herd immunity” from the coronavirus pandemic.
Recently, a figure to whom millions of Americans look for guidance — Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, an adviser to both the Trump administration and the incoming Biden administration — has begun incrementally raising his herd-immunity estimate.
In the pandemic’s early days, Dr. Fauci tended to cite the same 60 to 70 percent estimate that most experts did. About a month ago, he began saying “70, 75 percent” in television interviews. And last week, in an interview with CNBC News, he said “75, 80, 85 percent” and “75 to 80-plus percent.”
In a telephone interview the next day, Dr. Fauci acknowledged that he had slowly but deliberately been moving the goal posts. He is doing so, he said, partly based on new science, and partly on his gut feeling that the country is finally ready to hear what he really thinks.
Hard as it may be to hear, he said, he believes that it may take close to 90 percent immunity to bring the virus to a halt — almost as much as is needed to stop a measles outbreak.
Cracks me up the way these nuts love to jump in front of a camera or mic to hear or see themselves. This past retirement dude is just as much a “talking head” as fat asses Karl Rove and Dick Morris. Non know anymore than the weather guys.