Dr Doom is back: Anthony Fauci says there are still ‘unacceptable’ levels of Covid deaths

Dr Anthony Fauci has warned America is at a Covid ‘crossroad’ and claims the current level of virus deaths is ‘unacceptable’.

The government’s top infectious disease doctor said Americans should not be lured into a false sense of security because Covid stats have been deflating since spring.

There are currently 270,000 weekly cases, while deaths hover around 2,500, compared to about 500,000 and 8,500, respectively, this time last year.

While he accepted the declining numbers as progress, Dr Fauci said he expects a harsh winter with high infection levels and new variants of the virus. 

‘We’re really at a point that may be a crossroads here,’ Dr Fauci said in a radio interview.

‘As we’re entering into the cooler months, we are starting to see the emergence of sublineage variants of omicron.’

He added: ‘We’re still in the middle of this — it is not over — 400 deaths per day is not an acceptable level. We want to get it much lower than that.’

Dr Fauci expects the new Omicron subvariants to render antibody therapies such as Evusheld completely useless — in a worrying sign for immunocompromised patients.

He also warned US hospitals face a ‘negative trifecta’ this winter as flu and RSV cases soar to unseasonably high levels.

The weekly average number of cases in the US hover around 270,000, a far cry from an average of 500,000 weekly cases this time last year

The seven-day average number of deaths due to Covid have fallen to about 2,500, way down from 8,500 weekly this time last year. 

Infectious disease warn that Americans can expect a more severe flu season after Covid mitigation measures such as masking have been relaxed

RSV hospitalizations are most common among children under age two, who are more vulnerable to severe infection requiring supplemental oxygen. The graph shows that hospitalizations are highest among babies under six months and babies under 2 years following close behind. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the influenza outbreak is already the worst in 13 years. And pediatric hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with RSV cases.

‘It’s going to be very confounding and might even stress the hospital system, particularly for the pediatric population,’ Dr Fauci told the Conversations on Health Care radio show.

Nearly half of the cases and deaths due to Covid in the US can be attributed to the BA.5 variant, an offshoot of the highly transmissible Omicron strain.

BA.5 accounts for over 49 per cent of cases, but newer sub-strains XBB, BQ1, and BQ1.1. are coming up close behind.

Omicron subvariants have different mutations on their spike proteins that alter their levels of transmissibility and virulence, or, the ability of the virus to cause disease. 

The new strains have already shown they are able to evade immune protection conferred through vaccines and prior infection.

The subvariant soup is also resistant to antibody treatments, which are especially crucial to protecting people with faulty immune systems, such as organ transplant recipients.

Dr Fauci warned that the immunocompromised are at especially high risk if a new Covid wave arises.

Pfizer is responsible for a blockbuster Covid treatment called Paxlovid which remains effective against the swarm of subvariants. But immunocompromised people cannot take the drug due to interactions with their other medications.

While warning that a new Covid surge is possible, Dr Fauci acknowledged that the American public has become increasingly fatigued.

Dr Fauci rose to prominence early in the pandemic for his measured tone and expertise in epidemiology. 

But his popularity has suffered since then due to messaging fumbles, miscalculations about the course of the pandemic early on, and sometimes contradictory guidance.

For instance, he and former Trump administration surgeon general Jerome Adams were blasted for early advice to the public to hold off on masking up, instead saying that personal protective equipment should be preserved for healthcare professionals on the front lines.

Dr Fauci was also embroiled in a coverup scandal in which he quashed dissenting voices in the scientific community who subscribed to the theory that Covid-19 was the product of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where scientists study coronaviruses.

Last month, Dr Fauci admitted that in the early months of the pandemic, ‘I probably should have tried to be much, much more careful in getting the message to repeat.’

The US is in far better shape than last winter when the omicron variant overtook the country. 

Still, Dr Fauci cautioned that the US could soon experience a ‘negative trifecta’ of viral outbreaks.

The seasonal flu has made a comeback since sinking to negligible levels during the pandemic. 

Infectious disease experts maintain that widespread adherence to mitigation measures such as masking and isolating helped quell flu outbreaks.

Meanwhile, the rate of respiratory syncytial virus hospitalizations, particularly among children, has skyrocketed in recent weeks.

Roughly four out of every 1,000 babies under six months old have been infected with RSV since the season kicked off about a month ago – two months ahead of schedule. 

Two in every 1,000 babies between six months and one year have been hospitalized with RSV, as have more than one in every 1,000 children between ages of one and two.

Pediatric hospitals across the US are straining to keep up with the number of patients coming through the doors. 

Over three-quarters of pediatric inpatient beds are taken while about 80 per cent of ICU beds are in use nationwide.