US at the edge of living with virus as manageable disease: Fauci

Washington: Senior scientist in United States Anthony Fauci said that the nation is inching towards adapting their lives to the coronavirus era. Addressing the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Fauci said that eliminating the virus is impractical, but the nation is near the "threshold" where people learn to live with the virus as a manageable disease, Agence France Presse reported.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, further said that the transmissibility, immense potential to mutation and the existence of an enormous pool of unvaccinated people eradicating the virus would not happen, he said. Even vaccine efficacy against the virus is falling after a certain period.

However, after the Omicron peaks and leaves, the nation will enter a phase where there will be enough protection among the population and enough medicines will be available to treat those who are at risk among infected, he said.

The US currently records nearly 1 million positive cases and 1,200 deaths per day. The official data showed 1,45,982 are hospitalised at the moment.

Earlier, Fauci had strongly condemned the Republican Senator Rand Paul, who had furiously responded against vaccine mandates, refused to get vaccinated and blamed Fauci for all deaths due to the pandemic after Biden took office last year.

He produced a printout from Paul's website, which showed a banner saying "Fire Dr Fauci". He said he was facing threats on lives of his own and his family and was harassed through obscene phone calls. Last December, a man armed with an AR-15 assault weapon and multiple rounds of ammunition was arrested on his way to Washington. He had said he wanted to kill Fauci.