Dr. Anthony Fauci Says COVID-19 'Don't Just Disappear', Cannot Be Compared To SARS

The disease like the novel coronavirus don’t just disappear, said Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

During a recent interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, he was asked if COVID-19 could disappear the way SARS did in 2004.

“Anything could, Laura, but I must say that the degree of efficiency of transmissibility of this is really unprecedented in anything that I’ve seen. It’s an extraordinarily efficient virus is transmitting from one person to another. These kinds of viruses don’t just disappear,” The Hill quoted Dr. Fauci.

He also said that the current COVID-19 pandemic cannot be compared to SARS or HIV/AIDS since the diseases behave differently. He also called the rate of COVID-19 transmission ‘unprecedented.’

“This is different. So I think it’s a little misleading maybe to compare what we’re going through now with HIV or SARS, they’re really different,” The Hill quoted Fauci.

Earlier this month, he said that the world might never return to where it was before the COVID-19 pandemic began, especially without any effective treatment options or a potential vaccine.

In March, Fauci told NPR in an interview with host Noel King about how COVID-19 has moved continents and that it was quite disturbing to see the surge in the number of cases in New York City.

“Clearly, in the beginning, China was the epicenter. Then it moved to Europe, particularly in Italy. And now we're seeing a rather substantial outbreak in New York City metropolitan area. Now, there are a lot of other areas in the United States. But clearly, the acceleration of cases that we're seeing in New York City is really quite disturbing,” NPR quoted Fauci.

When asked if every state in the U.S. should be under lockdown, he said that it should be done uniformly throughout the entire nation.

“There are regions of the country where rather than shut down, we should be doing the kind of containment, which is seeking out, identifying, testing, contact tracing and isolating,” NPR quoted Fauci.

Dr. Anthony Fauci was appointed the director of NIAID in 1984 and he oversees an extensive research portfolio of basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose and treat infectious diseases. He has advised six presidents on HIV/AIDS and several other domestic and global health issues. Lately, he is widely respected for managing to correct the president’s announcement without saying he is wrong.