Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the US President's chief medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, has stated that he does not think that we can "eradicate" COVID but said that we can "dramatically diminish [its] impact" through vaccination, BBC News reported on Tuesday.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Dr Fauci said: "I don't believe that we can eradicate this in the sense of getting it completely off the planet, we've only eradicated one infectious disease... and that's smallpox. What I believe we can do is dramatically better control it and perhaps in some countries even eliminate it, that's going to be dependent on us."

Dr Fauci also said an aggressive vaccine programme could "dramatically diminish the impact that this virus has on us in the years to come". He added he believes richer countries can deliver booster programmes while also supplying vaccines to other nations.