Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to President Biden, tells “Conversations on Health Care” that we still have widespread COVID infection and that the virus’ daily death count in the United States is “still too high…we want to get it to much lower than it is right now…it’s not an acceptable level, it’s not OK.” The 21-day average for COVID death is 373, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He says we “may be at a crossroads” as we enter the cooler months and “we are starting to see the emergence of sublineage variants of Omicron.”

Fauci, who is leaving his position at the end of the year, also agrees that policymakers are right to include other factors in addition to public health in their COVID decision-making. These factors include the impact decisions have on the economy, social well-being and education. “You have to be concerned about optimally protecting the people by public health measures like we had to do in the acute stage of the outbreak but also have to consider other aspects…impact on the economy, as well as impact on the health and well being of people outside of the realm of getting infected…I have always said we need to do whatever we can to safely keep children in school.”

Fauci reminds Americans the best protections are the COVID and flu vaccines, which are widely available right now.

Fauci says in terms of his next steps he’s strictly adhering to ethical rules and not negotiating for any position until after he leaves the government but he broadly wants to utilize his 54 years of experience at the National Institutes of Health for writing, lecturing and serving in an advisory capacity to inspire the younger generation to pursue their interests in medicine, science and public health.

The complete interview is online at www.chcradio.com and can be heard on “Conversations on Health Care” this Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on WFED (1500 AM) in Washington, D.C., Sunday at 7:30 a.m. on WOR Radio in New York City and on YouTube, Apple podcasts, PodcastOne digital network and many other platforms.