Given the country’s vaccination rate, America’s leading expert on COVID-19 predicts that shots will be available to everyone in the general public by April.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC on Thursday that a versatile approach involving pharmacies, community vaccination centers and mobile units will accelerate the country’s vaccination rate until spring.
‘I would think by the time we’m in April, that’s what I would call [lack of] better wording, ‘open season’, namely that anyone and everyone in any category can start vaccinating, ”Fauci said.
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He predicted that it would take a few more months after April to get the vaccine into people’s arms, adding: “hopefully by the time we get to the middle and end of summer, we could have achieved the goal that we are talking, namely the overwhelming most people in this country have been vaccinated. “
Fauci speculated earlier in December that the US might see an open season by the end of March, or beginning of April. To begin general public vaccinations in April, the herd would reach immunity by the end of the summer, he added.
Although Fauci is accused of shifting the target poles by the percentages needed for herd immunity, he estimated in December that 75% to 80% of the country’s population would have to be vaccinated before the US could reach the milestone and ‘ a semblance of normalcy.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 44.8 million doses were administered in the US, and approximately 10.5 million people received two doses. President Biden indicated on Monday that his administration is on track to exceed its goal of administering 100 million vaccine doses during its first 100 days in office.
A seven-day moving average from the CDC recorded more than 1 million vaccines administered daily from January 24 to February 5, when the latest data were available.
Fox News’ Peter Aitken contributed to this report.