Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Briefing Room, Thursday, March 26, 2020, in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence listens. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease and a member of the White House Task Force fighting the Wuhan Coronavirus, said during a White House daily briefing that the virus, “very well might [be seasonal].”

Dr. Fauci warns of Seasonal Cycle: "We need to be prepared that we'll get a cycle…it totally emphasizes the need to do what we're doing in developing a vaccine."

Full video: https://t.co/U1bFNrsiTK pic.twitter.com/iCM3L5ldiq

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 25, 2020

“I know we will be successful in putting this down now,” Fauci said but it was important to concentrate on developing a vaccine and doing drug trials that would help to be prepared for the next cycle.

This is both good and bad. What that means is he believes that it might slow in the warmer weather/summer but might return in the fall and winter.

“I know we will be successful in putting this down now,” Fauci said but it was important to concentrate on developing a vaccine and doing drug trials that would help to be prepared for the next cycle.

He said this again in a subsequent interview.

From Washington Times:

“What we don’t know is whether this is going to happen with this virus, because this is a unique virus which we had no experience [with] before. We’re hoping that’s the case — we hope we get a respite as we get into April, May and June,” Dr. Fauci said in an interview for NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

“Likely, it will come around next season because it’s a very vigorous virus, and we’re seeing it already infecting people in the southern hemisphere now as they enter into their winter,” he said. “So I hope and I think we might get a respite with the weather, which would hopefully give us more time to better prepare for what might be a second or a seasonal cycling.”

President Donald Trump had mentioned this possibility early on when he talked about the virus possibly reducing in April or as the weather warmed. He was attacked for mentioning it from people who didn’t understand the science.

While it isn’t good that it might come back, it is good news that if this is true, it might buy us time if it slows in the meantime and get us back to some semblance of normality in the meantime and get people back to work.

As the Daily Caller notes, some other studies tend to back up Fauci’s thought, although obviously no one can say for sure and some similar viruses did not follow a seasonal pattern.

Fauci did not identify what research he has seen that points him towards a seasonal pattern for coronavirus. But several preliminary studies published this month showed that the rate of transmission for coronavirus is slower in areas with higher temperatures and higher humidity levels.

A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that 90% of the transmissions of coronavirus has occurred in areas with average temperatures between 3 and 17 degrees Celsius, or 37 and 63 degrees Fahrenheit.

The paper noted relatively fewer cases in warm states like Texas and Arizona compared to New York and Washington. There are outliers to the theory. Southern cities like New Orleans have seen a spike in coronavirus cases, but health experts are not sure if an anomaly — such as Mardis Gras, which took place in February — may account for the high case load.