Anthony Fauci told CNN on Tuesday that Operation Warp Speed will not achieve its goal of getting 20 million Americans to receive the coronavirus vaccine by the end of December.
By numbers: Only 2.1 million people received the first dose of vaccine, with nearly 11.5 million doses distributed since Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- With three days left until the end of the year, the government should vaccinate millions of people a day to reach the goal.
What it says: “We are certainly not at the figures we wanted to make at the end of December,” Fauci said.
- “I think that with the entry of January, we will see an increase in momentum which, I hope, will allow us to stay at the projected pace we talked about a month or two ago, when we talked about the planned launch of vaccinations,” he continued.
- “We really want to vaccinate those priority people so that we can reach what we call the ‘open season’ for the general population. When you get to the point where you can essentially say that anyone and everyone who wants to be vaccinated can be vaccinated, then when you really turn the focus on the outbreak. “
The whole picture: In the first week of distribution of the Pfizer vaccine, governors reported receiving fewer allowances than expected, even though members of Operation Warp Speed said in early December that they were confident they could distribute enough vaccines to make $ 20 million. of vaccinated people.
- Army General Gustave Perna, a member of Operation Warp Speed, responsible for distributing the vaccine, apologized for “mis-communication” with states about the number of doses he was to receive.
- President-elect Joe Biden, who will criticize the Trump administration for its failed goals in a speech Tuesday, said he has a plan to administer 100 million vaccines in its first 100 days.