US going in ‘wrong direction’ and COVID surge could continue unless more people get vaccinated, Fauci warns: Live COVID updates

The nation is going in the “wrong direction” and new coronavirus cases will continue to climb unless more Americans get vaccinated, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.

“Fifty-percent of the county is not fully vaccinated,” President Biden’s top medical adviser said on CNN’s State of the Union. “That’s a problem.”

The outbreak has been fueled by the extremely contagious delta variant, aided by a nationwide relaxation in mask and social distancing guidelines. And by the refusal by many Americans to get vaccinated, despite cajoling, mandates and giveaways.

Even conservative GOP leaders such as Florida Gov. DeSantis and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey have lobbied the holdouts. Ivey said last week that people need to have “common sense” and get vaccinated, saying it’s “time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the vaccinated folks.”

Fauci said the nation has the tools to alter dark predictions of surging U.S. deaths, repeating the oft-heard Biden administration mantra that the latest surge in cases is “really an outbreak among the unvaccinated.”

“We have two kinds of America,” Fauci said. “The very vulnerable, unvaccinated part and the really relatively protected vaccinated part.”