Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Health and Infectious Diseases, said Monday that the U.S. public will likely begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine sometime in early spring, but that it will be several months before an overwhelming majority of the population has been immunized. .
“I think people are a little confused about when to expect [the vaccine]. If you start vaccinating parts of the general public in April, by the end of August … then we should see an overwhelming majority, “Fauci said in an interview with The Daily Beast. “That’s if you vaccinate very aggressively in May, June and July.”
Fauci’s comments clarified a statement Sunday by general surgeon candidate Dr. Vivek Murthy, who told NBC Meet the press that “it may be closer to mid-summer or early autumn when this vaccine makes its way to the general population.” The statement implied that Joe Biden’s COVID working group – served by Murthy – was trying to lower expectations about the availability of a vaccine.
Fauci said that while the distribution of the vaccine to the general public is likely to begin in the spring, large areas of the country will likely be vaccinated by the end of the summer. “Until then, we should return to a certain degree of normalcy,” Fauci said.
Fauci’s comments come during the second week of Pfizer and the first round of Moderna vaccine shipments are making their way to states across the country. Millions of front-line health workers, including those working in long-term care facilities, receive the first doses. Various key frontline employees and people over the age of 75 will be included in the second tier of vaccine distribution in the next few weeks. Vice President Mike Pence told the nation’s governors in a conversation Monday – a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Beast – that Operation Warp Speed is about to oversee the distribution of 11 million doses of vaccine this week. The 11 million are a combination of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. About 4 million are scheduled to come out next week.
Members of the White House COVID working group met Monday to discuss the launch of the vaccine and briefly talked about announcements in some states last week that they received up to 30 percent fewer doses of Pfizer than expected. A senior administration official said that the governors who spoke about the shortcomings work from the old number and from the projections. The Daily Beast previously reported that some states received vaccine screenings that were twice the number of doses they received this week.
At Monday’s working group meeting, officials allayed concerns about future distribution issues, saying states should receive allocation numbers tomorrow for next week. Another senior government official pointed out the updated schedule of allocation announcements – states were previously told on Friday what they would receive for next week; they are now being told on Tuesday – as part of why states have not received the expected amount of doses. The number of doses available for release on a Tuesday does not necessarily include the doses that could be available for release that Friday, the official said.
The Secretary for Health and Human Services, Alex Azar and Pence, on Monday acknowledged to the governors the change of the allocation program in the call. And General Gustave Perna, the head of Operation Warp Speed, also acknowledged last week’s mix, calling it a “mistake.”
“In all the deliveries we have made so far, it was a mistake and we corrected it immediately,” Perna said.
Azar assured the governors that the distribution process will be easier in the future.
“We continue to create more channels of communication with you … to avoid any confusion about numbers or allocations,” Azar said on appeal.
Fauci, Azar and NIH health director Francis Collins will receive the Moderna vaccine at a televised event on Tuesday. President-elect Joe Biden was shot dead by Pfizer on Monday.
As more and more doses of the vaccine take place across the country, Fauci said he continues to be concerned about the vaccine’s hesitation and convinces the American public, including health care workers, that the vaccine is both safe and effective .
Fauci and other officials of the working group spent the last few weeks appearing on television and sitting in interviews to talk about the importance of vaccination. Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services discussed taking a more definitive step in promoting the vaccine, including developing commercials for television and social media, according to two officials with knowledge of the plan. At the call with the governors, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield and Azar asked the governors to go ahead with obtaining the vaccine and do so in public.
Biden’s team is also working on more definitive plans for vaccinations released to the general public and to ensure that most Americans will be immunized this spring and summer, people familiar with the president-elect’s planning said. This planning included finding new ways to help states ensure that their residents are educated about the vaccine they will receive and the steps the company and the federal government are taking to ensure its safety.