Anthony Fauci Warns US Is Headed in “Wrong Direction” on COVID-19

As hospitalizations spike, Republicans are trying to unring the bell on vaccine skepticism.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a Senate hearing on July 20Stefani Reynolds/Zuma

The coronavirus is a rapidly developing news story, so some of the content in this article might be out of date. Check out our most recent coverage of the coronavirus crisis, and subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.

COVID-19 never went away in the United States, but for a while this summer, the widespread availability of vaccines allowed life in most of the country to return to something pretty close to normal. But vaccination rates have flatlined, with large numbers of eligible Americans still yet to receive a shot, and infections and hospitalizations are starting to surge again from their early-summer lows. The seven-day average of new cases across the country has increased 300 percent over the last month as the more contagious “Delta variant” continues to spread, and hospitals in some states are once again starting to be overwhelmed.

On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s top adviser on the pandemic, confirmed that the nation was beginning to backslide. “It’s not going to be good—we’re going in the wrong direction,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union.

Fauci reiterated that Americans who have received the vaccine are largely protected from the coronavirus and its Delta variant—and particularly against potential hospitalization or death from COVID-19. Increasingly, hospitals are filling with younger Americans who had chosen not to receive a vaccine.

“It is really a pandemic among the unvaccinated.” Fauci said, “So this is an issue predominantly among the unvaccinated, which is the reason why we’re out there, practically pleading with the unvaccinated people to go out and get vaccinated.”

This is not what anyone wants to hear right now, but the numbers don’t lie. The reasons for the lagging vaccination rates are varied, but one significant and entirely unnecessary one has been the deliberate effort by Republican elected officials and commentators to undercut vaccination efforts. There’s a considerable range in how this manifests itself, from outright vaccine conspiracy mongering, to a conspicuous refusal among Republican leaders to publicize their own vaccination status, to a faux-populist emphasis on staving off government mandates. 

None of that needed to happen, and it may mean a whole lot of unnecessary illness. In recent days—as things have taken a more worrisome turn with the current surge—there has been a strikingly abrupt shift in messaging among some in the GOP. But the previous messaging is likely a hard thing to undo. On Saturday, ex-President Donald Trump typified the dissonance of this effort, telling supporters in Arizona—where he had traveled to further his lies about the 2020 election—“I recommend that you take it, but I also believe in your freedoms 100 percent.” 

Vaccine hesitancy was totally understandable, Trump suggested, trying to pin it on Joe Biden. “Because they don’t trust the President, people aren’t doing it.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate