Don't expect a vaccine against COVID-19 to be widely available earlier than months into 2021, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House's coronavirus task force, spoke to The Washington Post on Friday and said "I believe we will likely have" a COVID-19 vaccine "either by the end of this year or the beginning of 2021." Later on, though, the Post asked: what's the earliest that a coronavirus vaccine could actually be widely available to the public? That would be further into the year, Fauci explained.
"I think as we get into 2021, several months in, that you would have a vaccine that would be widely available to people in the United States," Fauci said.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Fauci did say he believes it's "likely" for there to be "tens of millions of doses" of a COVID-19 vaccine available by the beginning of the year, but he said it would be "as we get into 2021" that there would be "hundreds of millions of doses," according to companies working on vaccine candidates.
Although Fauci expects answers as to whether a coronavirus vaccine is safe and effective to come at the end of this year or beginning of next year, a piece in The Atlantic on Friday explains that a vaccine "will only mark the beginning of a long, slow ramp down," especially because "an initial vaccine might limit COVID-19's severity without entirely stopping its spread." Former Food and Drug Administration chief scientist Jesse Goodman told The Atlantic, "Even when a vaccine is introduced, I think we will have several months of significant infection or at least risk of infection to look forward to." Brendan Morrow
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreakSpeed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agencySpeed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year highSpeed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, changeSpeed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panelspeed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kidsSpeed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sickspeed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
-
US overdose deaths plunged 27% last yearspeed read Drug overdose still 'remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44,' said the CDC
