Dr. Fauci warns that Omicron may not be the end to the coronavirus pandemic

During the virtual Davos Agenda, a world economic forum held this week, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the omicron variant may not be what many hope will be the end of the pandemic phase of the novel coronavirus.

While Fauci agrees and ‘hopes’ the less-severe omicron variant could lead to downgrading the pandemic to an endemic, which has a constant presence in society but does not disrupt normal life, he points out it will only be the case if a very specific set of circumstance come together.

“…That would only be the case if we don’t get another variant that eludes the immune response to the prior variant,” Fauci told the panel.

As the omicron surge continues to ravage the US, closing schools and forcing mask mandates back into place nationwide, Fauci is concerned any new variants following omicron might not be as forgiving as far as severity.

This would prevent the ‘live virus vaccination’ we hope for with omicron, which spreads more easily than other variants but seems less severe and less deadly.

Fauci also pointed out that the number of people being infected by omicron and the rate at which it is spreading may override any possibility that omicron could end the pandemic. “We were fortunate” that Omicron did not share some of the same characteristics as Delta, Fauci said.

“But the sheer volume of people who are getting infected overrides that rather less level of pathogenicity,” Fauci explained. “It is an open question as to whether or not Omicron is going to be the live virus vaccination that everyone is hoping for because you have such a great deal of variability with new variants emerging,” he added.