As we're in the second half of 2023, the coronavirus pandemic seems like an eternity ago.
The days of wearing face masks, no dancing or travel, and weekly Zoom quizzes with your friends are well and truly over.
However, the virus is still very much still with us.
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In the month of July, there were around 1.4 million cases of Covid-19 recorded and more than 1,800 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
And the threat of the virus mutating to become stronger and more vaccine-resistant is an ongoing concern for health officials.
Dr Anthony Fauci, who helped lead America's response to the pandemic, is also worried that because it's been a year or so since Covid-19 cases started to fall dramatically that people have stopping caring.
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He fears that people won't listen to recommendations from the medical community if there is a new mutation.
The former White House chief medical adviser said in an interview with CNN: "I am concerned that people will not abide by [masking] recommendations.
“We’re not talking about mandates or forcing anybody, but when you have a situation where the volume of cases in society gets to a reasonably high level, the vulnerable, the elderly, those with underlying conditions, are going to be more susceptible, if they do get infected, of getting severe disease leading to hospitalization.
"We know that. That’s a fact.”
He added: "I would hope that if we get to the point that the volume of cases is such and organizations like the CDC recommends – CDC does not mandate anything – recommends that people wear masks, I would hope that people abide by that recommendation and take into account the risks to themselves and their families."
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Dr Fauci also responded to a report that was released earlier this year that called mask wearing ineffective.
The Cochrane Review, a research journal widely considered to be the gold standard of evidence-based medical research (according to Slate and Bloomberg), has revealed masks made little to no difference to keeping the virus from jumping from person to person.
In his interview with CNN, he said: "When you’re talking about the effect on the pandemic as a whole, the data is less strong.
"But when you talk about an individual basis of someone protecting themselves … there’s no doubt that there’s many studies that show that there is an advantage [to masks]."
Topics: Coronavirus