Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Wednesday that obtaining the COVID-19 vaccination does not give people a “free passage for travel,” as health officials announced the complete vaccination of only 3.8 million Americans and hundreds were seen in line to get the jab at the hard-hit California Dodger Stadium.
The nation’s foremost expert on infectious diseases appeared at a CNN global city hall hosted by Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta when he answered the viewer’s question about when immunity begins after receiving the vaccine.
The retired nurse, Carole Gardner, explained to Fauci that she and her husband could not travel to see their grandchildren. She explained that she and her husband will receive the second dose of Moderna vaccine on February 19.
“When will we have immunity and when will we be able to travel?” Gardner asks.
In response, Fauci said: “Maximum immunity starts from about 10 days to two weeks and beyond after the second dose … This will give you an efficacy of 94-95% and a good safety profile.”
However, Fauci warned that “it’s not a good idea to travel, period.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Wednesday that obtaining COVID-19 vaccination does not give people a “free travel permit”
On Wednesday night, drivers were further lined up for vaccinations and COVID-19 tests in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
“We don’t want people to think that they have been vaccinated because other public health recommendations do not apply,” he continued.
“So vaccination doesn’t mean I have a free travel permit, nor do I have a free permit to put aside all the public health measures we talk about all the time,” Fauci said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of drivers were seen in line Wednesday night to be vaccinated at the heavily hit Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. More than 1 million cases have been reported in Los Angeles County and at least 15,897 people have died.
His comments came just a day after Johnson and Johnson announced they would likely publish the results of phase three studies of his single-shot coronavirus vaccine next week.
Its vaccine is cheaper and easier to store and transport, which, along with requiring a single dose, could help speed up the painful run of the vaccine in the United States.
The 100 million doses that Johnson & Johnson promised the US would increase the US supply by about 25%.
President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response team, however, acknowledged that it will be months before anyone who wants a vaccine can get one and that “we will encounter unforeseen problems” at the launch, said the interim administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Andy Slavitt.
Earlier Wednesday, drivers were seen waiting in line at the COVID-19 mega vaccination site, which was set up in the Dodger Stadium parking lot.
Vaccinations began five weeks ago, but only 6.2% of the US population received the first doses of two-dose vaccines, either Pfizer or Moderna. This means that about 20.7 million have received at least one dose of vaccine.
About 3.8 million people have been completely vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It happens when the death toll in the US has risen to 428,654, including 3,990 new deaths. More than 25 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Encouragingly, cases, deaths and hospitalizations fell last week compared to previous weeks, but remain high, with an average of 3,287 people dying per day.
Dozens of precious doses of the two vaccines were wasted because no one could be found to take them before pampering or due to careless mistakes, such as thawing the freezers.
The simple single-dose image of Johnson & Johnson could be a huge help in solving some of these problems. It has a contract with the US for at least one million doses and is committed to distributing one billion doses globally this year.
About 20.7 million received at least one dose of vaccine. About 3.8 million people have been completely vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Fauci said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is being tested on highly infectious “super-covide” variants in South Africa and Brazil.
But even if its results are positive, the FDA is not expected to eliminate the vaccine for emergency use by March, raising questions about why there should be an agonizing delay of one month.
Meanwhile, Biden attacked the stakes of its COVID-19 vaccination target, announcing on Monday that it believes the US could administer more than 1.5 million vaccinations a day, compared to one million.
Currently, the US vaccinates an average of 1.27 million people a day. Supply could be the biggest obstacle to achieving and maintaining Biden’s goal of vaccinating 1.5 million people a day.
Collectively, Moderna and Pfizer have promised to deliver 200 million doses by the end of March.
More than 25.5 million infections have been reported in the United States since the beginning of the pandemic
Pfizer believes it can deliver another 20 million doses by then, and the US is in talks with Moderna and Pfizer to purchase another 200 million doses (100 million each), which will be available this summer.
But there are no stocks. The federal government retains enough resources to cover doses of two to three days in the event of production interruption.
Otherwise, it relies on manufacturers to maintain a steady flow of new doses to the state, Slavitt said.
He said the government is “confident” in these producers, but even he acknowledged that there will likely be production disruptions, and the government is only planning a thin pillow amid a launch that has so far been chaotic and left many states the point of running out of doses.