Dr. Fauci Predicts What July 4 Could Look Like

Could things be back to normal by this summer? While it's unlikely that we will be able to return to our pre-pandemic lives so soon, this summer is shaping up to be better than the last. More people are being vaccinated every day and, while it will be some time before we achieve herd immunity, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci has an idea of what things could look like this 4th of July.

"If by the time we get to the Fourth of July, with the rollout of the vaccine, we get the level of infection so low — I'm not going to be able to tell you exactly what the specific guidelines of the [US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] are, but I can tell you for sure [guidelines] will be much more liberal than they are right now about what you can do," he recently told CNN.

That being said, things could still go in the opposite direction, warned Fauci, and if we try to return to our pre-pandemic lives too quickly we could see another COVID surge. "We can avoid that if we continue to vaccinate people, get more and more protection without all of a sudden pulling back on public health measures," he said.

Either way, it looks like people who have been fully vaccinated will be able to have a slightly more normal 4th of July this year, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released new guidelines. Per the guidelines, those who have been vaccinated can now "gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask" as well as "gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19."