Fauci: Coronavirus Is ‘My Worst Nightmare,’ Pandemic ‘Isn’t Over Yet’

Dr. Anthony Fauci is not among the public health experts declaring coronavirus “over” now that the first wave of infections has ebbed and massive anti-racism protests are challenging social distancing requirements.

Speaking to the Biotechnology Innovation Organization International Convention Wednesday, Fauci called the disease his “worst nightmare” as an expert on pandemics, and warned medical professionals that the virus “isn’t over yet,” and that they should expect a resurgence — or several.

Fauci started by comparing the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 to previous pandemics, suggesting that coronavirus’ transmissibility made it a much bigger global threat.

“Ebola was scary, but Ebola would never be easily transmitted,” Fauci said, per CNN. ‘HIV, as important as it is, was drawn out and over an extended period of time, adding that fears of HIV largely depended “upon who you are, where you are, where you live.”

COVID-19 was deadly like Ebola and highly transmissible like HIV, making it a perfect storm.

“Now we have something that turned out to be my worst nightmare,” Fauci said. “In the period of four months, it has devastated the world.”

Indeed, COVID-19 has continued to kill upwards of 1,000 people per day in the United States, even though it has largely disappeared from headlines. Johns Hopkins reports that the death toll from coronavirus has now topped 111,000 in the U.S. and 400,000 worldwide, with still millions of infections.

Fauci also cautioned health care providers that the disease remains a top concern.

“It just took over the planet,” Fauci said, “And it isn’t over yet.”

Not only are people continuing to be infected with the virus, but health care experts are still unsure of the long-term effects of contracting the novel coronavirus. Many patients who recovered from COVID-19 are still suffering from diminished lung capacity and other coronavirus-related ailments months later.

“The thing that we don’t yet fully appreciate is what happens when you get infected and you get a serious disease and you recover? What are the long-term durable negative effects of that infection?” Fauci asked.

The good news, Fauci said, is that there are several vaccines in development that look promising and it may be that there is more than one available vaccine by the end of the year.

News of a vaccine is particularly promising given that many states are now seeing a resurgence of coronavirus following Memorial Day festivities and the first, full week of being “open” following coronavirus-related lockdowns, which kept many in the U.S. at home from March through May. Experts are also concerned that the massive anti-racism protests, taking place daily in many of the largest American cities may fuel a second, nationwide outbreak.

It will still be a week before the first protest-related cases of COVID-19 emerge if any.