How are we feeling today?
White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Covid-19 turned out to be his “worst nightmare” come to life as the coronavirus continues to rapidly spread across the globe.
The virus is “something that’s highly transmissible. … In a period — if you just think about it — in a period of four months, it has devastated the world,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with the BIO Digital virtual health-care conference that aired Tuesday.
“That’s millions and millions of infections worldwide. And it isn’t over yet. And it’s condensed in a very, very small time frame,” he said. “You know, first notice at the end of December, hit China in January, hit the rest of the world in February, March, April, May, early June.”
The coronavirus, which emerged in Wuhan, China, in late December, has infected more than 7 million people worldwide and killed at least 408,244, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Fauci said the virus is “very different” from other outbreaks such as Ebola and HIV. The virus jumped from an animal host and has a high degree of transmissibility and mortality, he said. It is historically one of the worst pandemics the world has ever experienced, he said, adding people have compared it to the 1918 flu.
“I mean, Ebola was scary. But Ebola would never be easily transmitted in a global way,” he said. “HIV, as important as it is, was drawn out over an extended period of time. I mean, I think the ultimate impact of AIDS almost certainly will be greater than anything we’re talking about now.”
The coronavirus just “took over the planet,” he said.
He is enthusiastic about a vaccine so there’s that …