Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, described the current status of the pandemic in the United States as a “mixed bag” that is leaning more toward the positive than the negative.

But, he said, there is still more work to do.

In our conversation, he weighs in on vaccine mandates, booster shots and the end of the pandemic.

Guest: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases. 

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Background reading: 

• In a turnaround, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to grant Pfizer’s request tobooster-eligibility-adults.html?searchResultPosition=1"> expand booster shot eligibility to all adults before the winter holiday season.
• This week, the Biden administration argued that the federal government hadvaccine-mandates.html"> all the power it needed to require large employers to mandate vaccination of their workers against the virus — or to require those who refuse the shots to wear masks and submit to weekly testing.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.