With winter approaching and coronavirus incidence rates increasing again, White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning that decreasing protection from vaccines combined with the highly transmissible delta strain will create a “double whammy” that will affect “even the vaccinated.”

“The people who are most most vulnerable are the unvaccinated — but when you have a virus as transmissible as delta, in the context of waning immunity, that dynamic is going to negatively impact even the vaccinated people. So it’s a double whammy,” Fauci stated in a pre-recorded interview aired Tuesday afternoon at the 2021 STAT Summit.

“You’re going to see breakthrough infections, even more so than we see now among the vaccinated,” he added.

His dire prediction joins a chorus of alarms already being raised about COVID’s resurgence as the holidays approach and herald a season of family gatherings.

According to federal data, the countrywide reported average of new cases per day has risen to well than 80,000, the highest level in in a month. At the moment, forty states are seeing high transmission, and overall hospitalizations have climbed for the first time in nearly ten weeks.

According to Fauci, booster doses of the COVID vaccine might become the standard for a “full” vaccination.

It comes as an increasing number of states and local jurisdictions have chosen to move ahead of federal regulators by endorsing booster doses for all individuals at least six months after their second Pfizer or Moderna shot.

Though Pfizer submitted a formal request to the Food and Drug Administration last week to expand the booster’s authorization, federal agencies currently recommend it only for people over the age of 65 who have an underlying medical condition or are at high risk of exposure, at least six months after their second dose.

However, all Johnson & Johnson recipients over the age of 18 are entitled for a boost two months following their initial dose.

“A third shot boost for an mRNA is likely — should be part of the actual standard regimen, where a booster isn’t a luxury; a booster isn’t an add on; and a booster is part of what the original regimen should be,” Fauci said.

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