Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House medical adviser on the novel coronavirus, recently warned that the delta coronavirus variant will create two Americas.
Fauci’s concerns over COVID-19 vaccination
Fauci appeared on Don Lemon’s CNN show, “Don Lemon Tonight,” earlier this week to talk about the COVID-19 vaccination rollout. Fauci said there is a growing gap between parts of the country with high vaccination rates and low vaccination rates.
- “When you have such a low level of vaccination superimposed upon a variant that has a high degree of efficiency of spread, what you are going to see among undervaccinated regions, be that states, cities or counties, you’re going to see these individual types of blips,” Fauci said on the show.
Concerns over ‘two Americas’
Right now, 47% of the entire U.S. population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But experts have been worried for weeks that the vaccination rates will create two separate Americas. For example, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Scott Gottlieb told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that there will be states with low vaccination numbers and high case numbers, as well as states with high vaccination numbers and low case numbers.
- “Connecticut, for example where I am, shows no upsurge of infection, but Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, show very substantial upsurges of infection. That’s based entirely on how much population wide immunity you have based on vaccination,” he said.
Experts told BuzzFeed News that there will be two Americas. One of them will include regions where delta coronavirus variant cases are now and another where those cases are high.
Peter Hotez, a COVID-19 vaccine researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, recently told BuzzFeed News that continues to be the case.
- “I call it two COVID nations,” he said.
- “Somehow we have to break this idea that allegiance to conservatism and the Republican Party has to do with not getting vaccinated,” Hotez said. “It’s really troubling.”
Vaccination rollout is an American success
President Joe Biden recently said that the coronavirus vaccine rollout is an American success story — one that unites all sides of the country, according to The Hill.
- “Together, we built an unparalleled vaccination program and managed one of the biggest and most complicated logistical challenges in American history,” Biden said. “What we’re seeing is a truly American accomplishment.”