作为“极具传染性”omicron变体安东尼·福奇博士警告说，新冠肺炎病例可能会继续攀升。

“每天都在上升。福奇告诉美国广播公司“本周”联合主持人乔纳森·卡尔:“最近一周的平均人数约为15万，而且很可能会更高。

福奇说，尽管研究表明奥米克龙在住院方面没有那么严重，但他强调，“我们不想自满”，因为“当你有如此高数量的新感染时，它可能会压倒严重程度的真正下降。”

他解释说:“如果你有很多很多不太严重的人，这可能会抵消你有这么多人时不太严重的积极影响。“我们特别担心那些未接种疫苗的人...当你有一种对接触人群特别有效的病毒时，这些是最脆弱的。”

苏珊·沃尔什/美联社档案

安东尼·福奇博士，美国国家过敏和传染病研究所所长.

星期二，乔·拜登总统宣布了一项计划从1月开始向美国人发放5亿份免费的家庭快速检测。这些测试将通过邮件发送给提出要求的美国人。据政府称，一个要求测试的网站将于明年1月上线。

但是，由于美国人准备在假期看望亲戚，omicron的激增引发了大规模的考试热潮，相反，他们面临着空空如也的药房货架和大量的考试队伍。

星期三，美国广播公司新闻“今晚世界新闻”主播大卫·穆尔，问拜登这是否是一次失败。

“我不认为这是一次失败，”拜登在独家采访中回答道。“我认为这是——你可以争辩说，我们应该在一年前、六个月前、两个月前、一个月前就知道了。”

“我希望我在两个月前就考虑订购“5亿次家庭测试”，他告诉Muir。

拜登补充说，在家庭测试的可用性方面，“没有什么足够好的”。

当卡尔被问及这些评论时，福奇在《本周》中承认，他对在家测试的可用性感到沮丧，并说“我们显然必须做得更好。”

“年初，基本上没有快速护理点家庭测试可用。现在，他们已经超过九个了，还会有更多的人来，”福奇说。“它们的生产规模迅速扩大，但由于我们有需求，在某些方面，乔恩认为这是好的，我们有很高的需求，因为我们应该比以前更广泛地使用测试。”

“但是你有如此高的需求，各种事件的混合，omicron煽动人们适当地关注并希望得到测试，以及假期期间测试运行的事实——我们显然必须做得更好，”他继续说道。“我认为随着我们进入一月份，情况会有很大的改善。但这对我们今天和明天都没有帮助。”

卡尔还询问了美国食品和药物管理局上周批准辉瑞和默克抗病毒药物治疗新冠肺炎的紧急授权。

“这真的是你一直在等待的突破吗?”卡尔质疑道。

“这是应对疫情的综合方法的一部分。疫苗和加强剂，口罩，现在非常重要的是，一种高效的疗法真的会有很大的不同，”福奇回答说。“我们只需要确保生产足够的这种产品，这样我们就可以让它尽快被那些需要它的人广泛使用。”

“我认为这将是未来工作的重中之重，对吗?我的意思是，可能包括国防[生产]法案……等等?”卡尔追问。

“当然，乔恩，当然，”福奇说。“我们必须把那种产品送到需要它的人的嘴里。”

根据疾控中心的数据，只有61.7%的美国人口完全接种了新冠肺炎疫苗。许多美国人在使用新冠肺炎疫苗一年多后仍然反对。

奥米克隆的激增似乎没有动摇未接种疫苗的美国人。根据凯泽家庭基金会本周的一项民意调查，只有12%的未接种疫苗的美国人表示，这种变体使他们更有可能接种疫苗。

前总统唐纳德·特朗普表示支持疫苗接种他传播了关于疫苗的阴谋论，但没有公开接种疫苗，他在周三接受《每日电讯报》的坎迪斯·欧文斯采访时表示支持新冠肺炎疫苗，他说:“疫苗的结果非常好。...人们接种疫苗后不会死亡。”

卡尔问福奇，特朗普的支持者是否会听取这一信息。

“我认为，他继续说人们应该接种疫苗，并向他们阐明这一点，在我看来是一件好事。我希望他能坚持下去，”福奇回答道。

福奇还表示，当特朗普上周末在得克萨斯州被他的一些支持者嘘时，他感到惊讶，因为这位前总统透露他已经得到了他的增强剂。

“我惊呆了，”福奇说。“我的意思是，考虑到他在那个群体中有多受欢迎，他们会嘘他，这告诉我他们在被告知他们应该做什么时有多顽固。”

Fauci warns omicron cases 'likely will go much higher'

As the "extraordinarily contagious"omicron variantsurges across the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that COVID-19 cases will likely continue to climb.

"Every day it goes up and up. The last weekly average was about 150,000 and it likely will go much higher," Fauci told ABC "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

While Fauci said studies show omicron is less severe in terms of hospitalizations, he stressed, "we don't want to get complacent" because "when you have such a high volume of new infections, it might override a real diminution in severity."

"If you have many, many, many more people with a less level of severity, that might kind of neutralize the positive effect of having less severity when you have so many more people," he explained. "And we're particularly worried about those who are in that unvaccinated class ... those are the most vulnerable ones when you have a virus that is extraordinarily effective in getting to people."

On Tuesday,President Joe Biden announced a planto distribute 500 million free at-home rapid tests to Americans beginning in January. The tests will be delivered by mail to Americans who request them. A website to request the tests will launch in January, according to the administration.

But the omicron surge created a massive rush for tests as Americans prepared to see relatives for the holidays, and they instead faced empty pharmacy shelves and massive test lines.

On Wednesday,ABC News' "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir,asked Biden if that was a failure.

"I don't think it's a failure," Biden replied in the exclusive interview. "I think it's -- you could argue that we should have known a year ago, six months ago, two months ago, a month ago."

"I wish I had thought about ordering" 500 million at-home tests "two months ago," he told Muir.

Biden added "nothing's been good enough" when it comes to the availability of at-home tests.

When Karl asked about the comments, Fauci admitted to "This Week" he is frustrated with at-home test availability and said "we've obviously got to do better."

"The beginning of the year, there were essentially no rapid point of care home tests available. Now, there are over nine of them and more coming," Fauci said. "The production of them has been rapidly upscaled, and yet because of the demand that we have, which in some respects, Jon, is good, that we have a high demand because we should be using testing much more extensively than we have."

"But the situation where you have such a high demand, a conflation of events, omicron stirring people to get appropriately concerned and wanting to get tested as well as the fact of the run on tests during the holiday season -- we've obviously got to do better," he continued. "I think things will improve greatly as we get into January. But that doesn't help us today and tomorrow."

Karl also asked about the FDA last week granting emergency authorization to both Pfizer and Merck’s antiviral pills to treat COVID-19.

"Is this really the breakthrough that you've been waiting for?” Karl questioned.

"That's part of the comprehensive approach to this outbreak. Vaccines and boosters, masks and now very importantly, a highly effective therapy is really going to make a major, major difference,” Fauci replied. “We've just got to make sure that there's the production of enough of that product that we can get it widely used for those who need it as quickly as possible."

"I assume that will be a top priority going forward, right? I mean, possibly including Defense [Production] Act … and the like?" Karl pressed.

"Absolutely, Jon, absolutely,” Fauci said. "We've got to get that product into the mouths of those who need it."

Only 61.7% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to CDC data. Many Americans remain against COVID-19 vaccines over one year into their use.

The omicron surge doesn't appear to sway unvaccinated Americans. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll this week, just 12% percent of unvaccinated Americans polled said the variant makes them more likely to get a vaccine.

Former PresidentDonald Trump showed his support for vaccinations, who has spread conspiracy theories about vaccines and didn't get vaccinated publicly, showed his support for COVID-19 vaccines in a Wednesday interview with The Daily Wire’s Candace Owens, saying, "The results of the vaccine are very good. ... People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine."

Karl asked Fauci whether Trump’s supporters might listen to that message.

“I think that his continuing to say that people should get vaccinated and articulating that to them, in my mind is a good thing. I hope he keeps it up,” Fauci responded.

Fauci also said he was surprised when Trump was booed by some of his supporters in Texas last weekend after the former president revealed he'd gotten his booster shot.

"I was stunned by that," Fauci said. "I mean, given the fact of how popular he is with that group, that they would boo him, which tells me how recalcitrant they are about being told what they should do."