Virus may infect most, Fauci says, but risk of severe illness 'very, very low' for vaccinated

[iemanja]

Fauci affirms what many have been saying about the importance of vaccination in protecting against lethality of the virus. The bummer is that most of us will probably get COVID at some point, though if we're vaxxed chances are in will be mild.

Top U.S. infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci on Wednesday reiterated the stark warning that the coronavirus will probably infect most Americans eventually, but added an important caveat: While “virtually everybody is going to wind up getting exposed and likely get infected,” he said, “if you’re vaccinated and if you’re boosted, the chances of you getting sick are very, very low.”

Fauci made the statement at a White House news briefing, echoing what other top health officials have said in recent days. His comments add to the growing list of clarion calls to the unvaccinated, urging them to get shots by citing grim numbers that show the uninoculated are in danger of serious illness.

At a Senate hearing Tuesday, Fauci said that unvaccinated people are 20 times likelier to die, 17 times likelier to be hospitalized and 10 times likelier to be infected than the vaccinated. In that same session, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Janet Woodcock said that “it’s hard to process what’s actually happening right now, which is most people are going to get covid.”

A World Health Organization official on Tuesday predicted that the omicron variant will have infected more than half of the population in the European region in the next six to eight weeks, if current trends hold. Here’s how fast the omicron variant is spreading around the world.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/12/covid-omicron-variant-live-updates/

[ChazII]

1. I have heard that is now a matter of when

not if. Those of us who are vaccinated and boosted as in the first paragraph below says it best, “if you’re vaccinated and if you’re boosted, the chances of you getting sick are very, very low.”

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. Seems like we are moving to, "it's safe to be normal if you are vax'd".

If you aren't, you are at higher risk to interact in public without masking and spacing. All non-vacinnated people are. That should be the direction Biden and Fauci should lead with in messaging.

[BlueTsunami2018]

3. I've been around people who have had it on the job.

It’s pretty much inevitable that you’re going to encounter it unless you’re a shut in. I don’t know if I’ve simply fought it off because of the booster or if I just have been lucky. Either way, so far, so good.

Hopefully it continues this way.