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Dr. Fauci says vaccinating people who disregard Covid as ‘fake news’ could be ‘a real problem’



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Dr. Anthony Fauci Testifies Before Senate On Federal Response To Pandemic

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White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Thursday that convincing people who consider the coronavirus to be “fake news” to get vaccinated against the disease could become an issue as the nation seeks to achieve so-called herd immunity to suppress the pandemic.

“They actually don’t think that this is a problem,” Fauci said during a conversation with The Hastings Center. “Despite a quarter million deaths, despite more than 11 million infections, despite 150,000 new infections a day, they don’t believe it’s real. That is a real problem.”

Fauci’s comments with The Hastings Center are similar to those published in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday where the nation’s leading infectious disease expert said he was “stunned” that people in certain parts of the country with devastating Covid-19 outbreaks still consider the pandemic to be fake.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has estimated that at least 75% of the country will need to be vaccinated against Covid-19, though ideally that figure would be higher. Those estimations come even as companies like Pfizer and Moderna report promising preliminary data showing their vaccines to be more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19.

“What I would like to see is the overwhelming majority of people get vaccinated so we can essentially really crush this outbreak,” Fauci told The New York Times’ Dealbook conference on Tuesday.

This is a developing story. Please check back later for updates.

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