Fauci said this current infection level is “unacceptable.”

“I mean, we’ve heard people say, understandably, they’re trying to look for a metric to give to the public that we’re going to have to start living with COVID. I believe that’s the case because I don’t think we’re going to eradicate it. We’ve only eradicated one infection of mankind, and that’s smallpox. I don’t think we’re even going to eliminate it,” the infectious disease expert said.

Fauci said illnesses — such as malaria, polio and measles — have become nearly nonexistent through “a very, very, very intensive vaccine campaign.”