The United States could soon see a new spike in COVID-19 cases and vulnerable people are likely to need a fourth dose of the vaccine, said Anthony Fauci, the top medical adviser to President Joe Biden.

Fauci noted that UK officials have alerted him to an increase in COVID-19 cases fueled by the BA.2 subvariant and due to easing of health restrictions. Another warning sign is that the United States has shown the same behavior as the United Kingdom but weeks apart.

“We have all three factors right now,” Fauci said in an interview Thursday, March 17. “I would predict that we are going to see an increase, or at least a flattening and plateauing of the decline in cases. And the question is how do we deal with that.”

Cases in the United States have fallen steadily since records were set in January, prompting restrictions to be relaxed and President Joe Biden to encourage Americans to lead more normal lives. However, the Biden administration also asked Congress to approve more resources to prevent a new crisis, continue certain programs and buy more vaccines and treatments.

The resources are crucial to continuing clinical trials of booster vaccines and working on developing pan-coronavirus vaccines, Fauci said.

The White House is seeking $22.5 billion in funding, warning that it will soon have to close the programs and will not be able to buy more therapeutic treatments. Without new funds, “a lot of things are going to stop. That really is going to be a very serious situation,” Fauci said.

We are in a transition stage, warns Anthony Fauci

Anthony Fauci spoke this March 17 with Democratic legislators to outline the needs of the administration.

During the meeting, he recalled that the United States has not ordered enough injections to apply a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to all Americans if necessary.

He added that the data is not clear, but the protection against hospitalization appears to wane four to five months after a third injection.

“I would project that sooner or later we will need a fourth dose,” though perhaps only for the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions, at least initially, Fauci said.

“This is really a transition stage. obviously we are going in the right direction,” Fauci said. “We have to be really careful and not declare total victory prematurely. I think we will be able to settle down to a degree of normalcy,” he added.

Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown School of Public Health and the next US official, also sees a rebound in COVID-19 cases, as well as the emergence of new variants. “You are very likely to see more surges in infections,” he said.

Anthony Fauci also spoke about the use of face coverings, commenting that the United States will have to be flexible, including potentially recommending the use of masks in certain settings again.

“We had better be careful, because history has taught us that what has happened in the UK usually happens to us three or four weeks later,” he said.