Dr Fauci dismisses idea of herd immunity for US, says infections must be prevented

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Diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci has dismissed White House proposals on herd immunity as an appropriate means of managing the United States’ coronavirus pandemic.

In comments made to MSNBC on Wednesday, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director argued that the US was “not there yet”, when it comes to such a strategy.

Herd immunity, which has proven to be a controversial approach to the Covid-19 pandemic, would see large swathes of the population become infected with the virus until an entire population was immune.

That process, according to multiple studies, would see millions of deaths in the process.

"That's not a fundamental strategy that we're using," said the diseases expert, who urged the Trump administration to instead prevent infections through isolation and contact tracing.

"The fundamental strategy that we clearly articulate and go by through the [White House coronavirus] task force is to try to prevent as many infections as you possibly can prevent," said Dr Fauci.

“We are certainly not wanting to weight back and let people get infected so you can develop herd immunity”, he added.

But the US president, in an interview with Fox News on Monday, claimed the coronavirus pandemic would end when enough people had contracted the disease.

“Once you get to a certain number, you know you use the word ‘Herd’,” he told Fox News. “Once you get to a certain number, it’s going to go away”

Those comments came as the Washington Post reported that Dr Scott Atlas, another aide to Donald Trump, was pushing senior administration officials to adopt herd immunity.

Dr Atlas, who was appointed as a health adviser in August, is reported to have no expertise in infectious diseases or epidemiology.