Fauci says America is 'out of the pandemic phase' as universities continue to impose COVID restrictions

Anthony Fauci announced on Wednesday that the United States is no longer in a “pandemic phase.” 

Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 

As Campus Reform continues to report, a number of universities still impose COVID-19 restrictions. Johns Hopkins University, for example, amended its COVID-19 policies multiple times during April. 

The announcement has raised the question of how colleges and universities will begin to navigate a “post-pandemic” stage.

“We’re really in a transitional phase, from a deceleration of the numbers into hopefully a more controlled phase and endemicity,” Fauci said told The Washington Post last week. 

”We are certainly right now in this country out of the pandemic phase,” he told PBS NewsHour. 

That announcement raises the question of whether or not universities will apply Fauci’s comments to their restrictions, or even consider their campuses as navigating “out of the pandemic phase.” 

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Campus Reform reported Thursday that the University of Cincinnati will drop its vaccine requirement beginning summer of 2022. However, students who frequent locations that require the COVID-19 shot, such as the hospital, labs, or schools, will not be subjected to the reversal.

Other institutions have taken similar steps to reduce the required precautions pertaining to the pandemic, but still require students to take some measures to ensure compliance with university standards.

Michigan State University, for example, is adopting a mask-optional policy while keeping its vaccine mandate.

Rutgers University, The College of New Jersey, and Indiana University Bloomington have enforced similar guidance as the Michigan university.

Fauci told NewsHour that while mutated variants are expected, health experts are considering that the population has begun to develop enough immunity to avoid future hospitalization and fatal surges.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a majority of Americans have been infected with COVID-19. This reportedly includes 60% of the population as of Apr. 26. 

Additionally, approximately 90% of United States counties are reported to have a “low” community risk for infection.

Fauci said to The Washington Post that the United States is on the brink of a “control,” “controlled,” phase given the decreased number of hospitalizations and deaths as new cases are reported. 

He then said that the United States “is transitioning into more of a controlled endemicity.” 

”A disease outbreak is endemic when it is consistently present but limited to a particular region,” Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health states on its website. “This makes the disease spread and rates predictable.”

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However, other universities have doubled down on COVID-19-related restrictions by re-instating campus mask mandates this spring, as Campus Reform has reported. These institutions include Columbia University, American University, George Washington University, and Georgetown University.

John Hopkins University will require a high-quality surgical mask, or cloth covering paired with a surgical mask, “in classrooms, lab-and-studio based classrooms, and other spaces where instruction takes place,” Campus Reform reported. 

Masks will not be required at the Maryland University in “administrative spaces, research labs, public spaces, public events, athletic facilities, and non-classroom communal spaces” assuming students are fully vaccinated and boosted.

Campus Reform has reached out to every school mentioned. This article will be updated accordingly.

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