Covid-19: Omicron variant will infect 'just about everybody,' says Dr Anthony Fauci

As Omicron spreads like wildfire across the world, White House Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci has said although the Covid-19 variant will likely infect most people, vaccinated people will still fare better.

“Omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency of transmissibility, will ultimately find just about everybody,” the nation’s leading infectious disease expert told J Stephen Morrison, senior vice-president of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Fauci added: “Those who have been vaccinated ... and boosted would get exposed. Some, maybe a lot of them, will get infected but will very likely, with some exceptions, do reasonably well in the sense of not having hospitalization and death.”

Across the United States, at least one in five eligible Americans - roughly 65 million people - are not vaccinated against Covid-19. More than 62 per cent of the country has been fully vaccinated, but only 23 per cent are fully vaccinated and boosted, according to data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, according to CNN.

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Fauci’s comments came in response to a question about whether the pandemic has entered a new phase. CNN reported that it will come when there’s enough protection in the community and drugs to easily treat severe Covid-19, he said, adding: “We may be on the threshold of that right now.”

On Tuesday, US Food and Drug Administration acting commissioner Dr Janet Woodcock said that while most people could catch the virus, the focus now should be on making sure hospitals and essential services function.

• Americas