WASHINGTON — The director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Friday that the United States might not get back to pre-pandemic life until the end of next year. “It could be the end of 2021 before we get back to how our lives were before COVID-19,” Fauci told MSNBC in an interview. But there is a caveat: “By the time you mobilize the distribution of the vaccinations, and you get the majority, or more, of the population vaccinated and protected, that’s likely not going to happen to the mid of end of 2021,” he said. "If you’re talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to COVID, it’s going to be well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021," he added. The US is still topping the world’s countries in terms of infections and deaths. However, the US administration is optimistic about getting vaccines or vaccinations by the end of this year or at the beginning of next year. Fauci also believes Americans will be able to sit in theaters again once a coronavirus vaccine has existed "for almost a year", according to a Fox News report. Fauci was responding to a question from actress Jennifer Garner about when Americans can expect to return to theaters during an interview posted to Garner"s Instagram page on Thursday. "I think it’s going to be a combination of a vaccine that has been around for almost a year and good public-health measures," Fauci said. "I would think by the time we get to the end of 2021 — maybe even the middle of 2021." He added that if the US gets a "knock-out vaccine that"s 85 [to] 90% effective," and "just about everybody gets vaccinated," society will have "a degree of immunity" that allows the general public to "walk into a theater without masks and feel like it"s comfortable" that they will not be at risk of catching COVID-19. Fauci also clarified some theories about catching COVID-19 based on earlier studies, saying people don"t need to worry too much about contracting the virus through inanimate objects such as groceries and packages, and people do not need to wear masks outside when they are very far away from others. — Agencies