BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Dr. Anthony Fauci was the guest speaker for Harvard Medical School's Grand Rounds Session on Thursday, and he said Americans need to start preparing for the fall and winter months.
During the 30-minute virtual session, Dr. Fauci said compared to hard-hit European countries like Spain and Italy, the U.S. did not do nearly enough to shut down early on.
"I made a comment about this, and actually got a little pushback from people in our government, until I went back and dug up the data and showed that in fact we did not close as much as we had thought," Fauci said. "I think as we get into the fall and we do more indoor things, we're likely going to see upticks in COVID-19."
In states that reopened too quickly, Dr. Fauci said coronavirus cases spiked after both Memorial Day and 4th of July weekend. He said the U.S. needs to keep a lid on the virus until a vaccine is developed, which he thinks could happen by the end of this year or early 2021.
Dr. Fauci also gave credit to several Boston groups, like Moderna in Cambridge, for playing a major role in trying to develop a vaccine, which he called "the Holy Grail" and the only intervention that will get the country back to normal.
WBZ NewsRadio's James Rojas reports:
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