Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the Moderna vaccine's early results were "stunningly impressive"
Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the Moderna vaccine's early results were "stunningly impressive" AFP / MANDEL NGAN

While President Joe Biden declared the "pandemic is over" in the U.S., the nation's leading infectious disease expert has other thoughts about the state of the country's COVID situation.

Despite Biden's bold assessment on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci thinks the U.S. is not yet near where it needs to be nearly three years since the pandemic started.

Fauci's remarks came in a talk with the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Monday, saying "How we respond and how we're prepared for the evolution of these variants is going to depend on us."

Fauci explained that "we have only 67% of our population vaccinated and only one-half of those have received a single boost," adding that the U.S. still has more than 400 daily COVID deaths.

Fauci's comments come a day after Biden said that the "pandemic is over" in the U.S. in an interview with "60 Minutes". Biden explained, "We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lotta work on it. ... But the pandemic is over."

Fauci, who is planning to retire from his position as Biden's chief medical advisor later this year, doesn't think that COVID will ever be fully eradicated.

"We are not where we need to be if we're going to be able to, quote, 'live with the virus,' because we know we're not going to eradicate it," Fauci said.

"We only did that with one virus, which is smallpox, and that was very different because smallpox doesn't change from year to year, or decade to decade, or even from century to century," Fauci added. "And we have vaccines and infection that imparts immunity that lasts for decades and possibly lifetime."

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Fauci previously said that there may be a spike in COVID cases as the country heads into the fall. He told Bloomberg TV in April, "I would think that we should expect that we are going to see some increase in cases as you get to the colder weather in the fall."

Over 1 million Americans have died from COVID since the pandemic started back in 2020, according to Johns Hopkins University.