Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, on Sunday issued an urgent plea for people to wear face masks and stay socially distant — warning the COVID-19 vaccine is “not going to save us” from the current surge in infections across the nation.
In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Birx said “You have to follow the guidelines now.”
“I want to be very frank to the American people, the vaccine is critical but it's not going to save us from this current surge,” she said. “Only we can save us from this current surge and we know precisely what to do.”
Birx said “every single person” needs to understand the way the virus is spread.
“If you're with anyone indoors without a mask, that's a viral spreading opportunity,” she said. “If you're outdoors and hugging and kissing individuals, that's a viral spreading opportunity. We have to really understand how contagious, how infectious this virus is.”
She added it’s also important “everyone understands also how much virus is out there.”
“There isn't a state without increasing cases right now except Hawaii,” she said.
“We have to listen right now to what we know works, which is masks, physical distancing, washing your hands,” she said. “But not gathering. You cannot gather without masks in any indoor or close outdoor situation.”
Laments that people are still holding onto “myths” about their vulnerability to the virus.
“I hear community members parroting back those situations, parroting back that masks don't work, parroting back we should work towards herd immunity, parroting back that gatherings don't result in super-spreading events,” she said.
“I think our job is constantly to say those are myths, they are wrong and you can see the evidence base.“
“Right now across the Sunbelt, we have governors and mayors who have cases equivalent to what they had in the summertime, yet aren't putting in the same policies and mitigations that they put in the summer that they know change the course of this pandemic across the South,” she said.
“It is frustrating. Not only do we know what works - governors and mayors used those tools to stem the tide in the spring and the summer. And this fall/winter surge is combining everything we saw in the spring and everything we saw in the summer, plus the fall surge going into a winter surge.”
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