“What Experts Think of Fauci’s Declaration that the United States is Past the COVID-19 Pandemic Phase”

Brooks Gump, Falk Family Endowed Professor of public health in the Falk College, was quoted in the Healthline article “What Experts Think of Fauci’s Declaration that the United States is Past the COVID-19 Pandemic Phase.” Gump, who is an expert on public health, explained that the current data shows it is far from certain that the recent decline in severe COVID-19 cases will remain consistent. “Unfortunately, we will have a very dynamic situation for the foreseeable future – with infection rates and case-fatality rates varying as a function of new variants [that vary] in transmissibility, severity, and resistance to vaccines, vaccine and booster effectiveness and coverage, and adherence to guidelines on masking and distancing,” he said.

Gump added that it is crucial that the U.S. still works to actively combat the virus. “The idea that we can just set a policy and walk away is a pipe dream. If we want to keep some control of these rates, we need to modify our approach each time the situation on the ground shifts,” he said.