Dr. Fauci predicts life in US might not be back to normal until late 2021
But he believes a coronavirus vaccine will be available by the beginning of next year.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Dr. Anthony Fauci arrives to testify before a house subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis hearing on July 31.
Longing to get back to pre-pandemic life, with its in-theater movies and other group activities? It may take awhile. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Friday that while he hopes a coronavirus vaccine is in the near future, American life will stay shaken up until "well into 2021."
Good news first: "I believe that we will have a vaccine that will be available by the end of this year, the beginning of next year," Fauci told Mitchell.
He noted that development of the vaccine is only the first step, though a huge one.
"By the time you mobilize the distribution of the vaccinations, and you get the majority, or more, of the population vaccinated and protected, that's likely not going to happen till the mid or end of 2021," Fauci said.
Mitchell asked Fauci about his response to an earlier question about when the country can "get back to normal," specifically, going into indoor, enclosed movie theaters with impunity. That's still a ways off, Fauci replied.
"If you're talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to COVID, it's going to be well into 2021, maybe even toward the end of 2021," Fauci said.
Hollywood moviemakers have been adjusting their sails too. Long-awaited superhero film Wonder Woman 1984 has been postponed multiple times, and filmmakers are reportedly now hoping for a Christmas 2020 theatrical release.
