Fauci calls on Americans to have the vaccine at their disposal when eligible

WASHINGTON – Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that this weekend’s approval of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine offered three “extremely effective vaccines” on the market over the weekend that offer significant protection against Covid-19, and urged Americans to take what is available . for them when they are eligible.

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In an interview with “Meet the Press”, Fauci said he would take any of the three approved vaccines – from Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson – because they all offer strong protection against serious coronavirus-related diseases. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci was vaccinated late last year amid early pressure to instill confidence in the deployment of vaccines.

“All three of them are really good, and people have to take the one that is best available,” he said.

“If you go to a place and you have J&J, and this is the one available now, I would take it. I would personally do the same. I think people should be vaccinated as quickly and as quickly as possible.”

The Food and Drug Administration approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Saturday, a day after its advisory panel recommended the approval. The company expects to have 20 million doses available by March.

The new vaccine differs from the other two previously approved because it is a single shot and does not require a second dose to be administered weeks later. According to FDA-released documents, the shot is 86 percent effective in preventing serious diseases in general, 72 percent effective in the US and 64 percent in South Africa.

Although the efficiency rates are lower than what the Moderna and Pfizer shots found before these approvals, Fauci told “Meet the Press” that Americans should not try to compare the efficiency numbers of the shots side by side because each shot was examined. in another trial amid different circumstances. Public health officials, for example, have been more concerned in recent weeks about the increase in variants that could possibly evade vaccination.

“It’s not the weaker vaccine, it’s all three very good vaccines,” Fauci said of the Johnson & Johnson survey.

According to an NBC News analysis, there were more than 28.6 million coronavirus infections in America and more than 514,000 deaths attributed to the virus. The number of new daily cases has dropped over the past few weeks – the average of seven days of new daily cases is about 70,000, the lowest since October. And the country’s vaccination rate has also improved by more than 68 million doses, according to NBC News.

Nevertheless, deaths are declining more slowly than new cases. And Fauci has warned government officials that the decline in affairs should not yet lead to a weakening of the restrictions because there are still too many viruses circulating in the country and that he is worried that the return could lead to another increase.

“We’ve been in this situation before,” he said. “If you’re starting to see a decrease in the number of cases, if you lift the restrictions early, we have some examples of the setback. Our baseline of daily infections is now, even if it’s far from where it was 300,000, plus , per day, it is about 70 000, the baseline is too high. ”

“Let’s keep our feet on the accelerator, because we’re going in the right direction.”