Fauci says ‘full blown’ phase of pandemic is nearly over in U.S. - FT
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, says that the U.S. is heading out of the "full blown" pandemic phase of COVID-19, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
However, Fauci did not indicate that the COVID-19 is now becoming endemic, but he said that the combined effect of vaccinations, therapeutics, and prior infections would soon make the virus more manageable.
"There is no way we are going to eradicate this virus," he cautioned, adding "but I hope we are looking at a time when we have enough people vaccinated and enough people with protection from the previous infection that the COVID restrictions will soon be a thing of the past."
Fauci predicted that the pandemic would soon reach an "equilibrium" where the government would not give a high priority to the number of infections. Instead, the pandemic response will be led by local health departments, according to him.
"As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated. There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus," he noted.
Fauci also indicated that he hoped pandemic-related restrictions would "soon" end and suggested it would likely happen this year.
Notably, Fauci does not think every American will need regular booster shots for protection. "It will depend on who you are," he said. "But if you are a normal, healthy 30-year-old person with no underlying conditions, you might need a booster only every four or five years."
Yesterday, leading vaccine makers including Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), and Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) sold off after Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), the partner of BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) in COVID-19 vaccine development, projected a lower-than-expected forecast for 2022.