Anthony Fauci says US life without strict pandemic controls could begin within months

Even as the US experiences a strong surge in new cases of Covid-19, America’s top infectious disease expert said on Wednesday that a transition to life without strict pandemic controls could begin within “months”.

Citing studies of the increasingly dominant Omicron variant that suggest it is less threatening than previous ones, Dr Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, spoke of living with a virus “that will not be eradicated and very likely would not be eliminated, but can actually be at such a lower level of control, namely, a control that does not disrupt society, does not disrupt the economy”.