On Sunday, after Dr. Anthony Fauci cited the Centers for Disease Control saying that if the United States saw a significant surge from a COVID-19 variant, particularly one that might result in an increase in hospitalizations, restrictions on the public might be reinstituted, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) fired on Twitter, “Hell no. For petty tyrants like Fauci, they only have one tool in their toolbox: authoritarian restrictions. Enough is enough.”

Fauci , President Biden’s chief medical advisor, was speaking to the host of ABC’s “This Week,” George Stephanopoulos, who asked, “What’s your take on this BA2 variant?

“Well, as was said, it has this degree of transmission advantage over the original Omicron but not a multifold advantage, so it’s about 50 to 60% or so more transmissible, which means, ultimately, over time, it might take over as the dominant variant,” Fauci answered. “It clearly, throughout the world, it’s about 80-plus percent, 85 percent  of the isolate. In the United States it’s still somewhere around 30%. So it does have an increased transmission capability.”