Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently predicted that churchgoers will be able to fully reconvene for worship gatherings in the fall after more people are vaccinated against COVID-19.
According to Premier Christian News, Fauci made his comments on Monday during the Choose Healthy Life Black Clergy Conclave – an online meeting of more than one hundred Black clergy, public health officials and corporate and scientific leaders working in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Reverend John Vaughn, a representative for Senator-elect Reverend Raphael Warnock from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, asked Fauci: “When can we expect to go back to church, when we’ll be able to sing, we’ll be able to do wind instruments?”
In response, Fauci explained that it depends on if “the overwhelming proportion of our population” receives the vaccine.
If 75 to 80 percent are vaccinated, “the level of virus in the community will be at such a low level that we will be able to really approach a degree of normality that’s similar, maybe not identical, but similar to where we were before all of this,” Fauci asserted.
He predicted that “in the mid-fall, we’ll be able to get back to that type of worship which we all are longing for right now,” if the vaccination program is successful.
Newly inaugurated president Joe Biden has promised to oversee the distribution of 100 million coronavirus vaccination shots. Biden contended that this will be achieved through increased funding along with the assistance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in vaccine distribution.
As of Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that over 15 million total vaccine shots had been administered to people in the U.S, along with a total distribution of more than 31 million doses.
Last week, under 800,000 shots on average had been administered daily.
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer. Visit his blog Blessed Are The Forgiven.
