Anthony Fauci told CNN on Tuesday that Operation Warp Speed would not achieve its goal of getting 20 million Americans the coronavirus vaccine by the end of December.
By the numbers: Only 2.1 million people received the first dose of the vaccine, with nearly 11.5 million doses distributed as of Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
- With three days left until the end of the year, the government must vaccinate millions of people a day to reach the target.
What he says: “We are definitely not on the numbers we wanted to be at the end of December,” Fauci said.
- “I believe that as we come into January, we will see an increase in momentum that, I hope, will enable us to catch up with the projected pace we talked about a month or two ago when we about the planned implementation of the vaccinations, ‘he continued.
- “We want to get people vaccinated with priority so that we can go to what we call ‘open season’ for the general population. If you get to the point where you can essentially say, anyone who wants to be vaccinated can be vaccinated, it is when you really reverse the dynamics of the outbreak. ‘
The whole picture: In the first week of Pfizer’s vaccine distribution, governors reported receiving fewer awards than expected, even though members of Operation Warp Speed said in early December that they were confident they could distribute enough vaccines to 20 to vaccinate a million people.
- Army General Gustave Perna, a member of Operation Warp Speed responsible for the distribution of vaccines, apologized for the ‘incorrect communication’ with states about the number of doses they had to receive.
- Elected President Joe Biden, who in a speech on Tuesday will criticize the Trump administration for its missed targets, said he has a plan to administer 100 million vaccine shots in its first 100 days.