Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Health and Infectious Diseases, said Monday that the American public was likely to start receiving the COVID-19 vaccine a little early in the spring, but it would be several months before an overwhelming majority of the population was immunized.
“I think people get a little confused about when to expect [the vaccine]. If you start vaccinating sections of the general public in April, by the time you get to the end of August… we should see an overwhelming majority, ”Fauci said in an interview with The Daily Beast. “That is if you vaccinate very aggressively in May, June and July.”
Fauci’s remarks clarified a Sunday statement by surgeon candidate, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who told NBC Meet the press that “it could be the middle of summer or early fall when this vaccine makes its way to the general population.” The statement left the implication that Joe Biden’s COVID task force – where Murthy works – was trying to lower expectations about the availability of a vaccine.
Fauci said that while distribution of vaccines to the general public is likely to begin in the spring, large areas of the country are likely to be vaccinated by the end of the summer. “By then we should be back to some degree of normalcy,” Fauci said.
Fauci’s comments come as the second week of Pfizer and the first round of Moderna vaccine shipments make their way to states across the country. Millions of primary care health workers, including those working in long-term care facilities, are receiving the first doses. Several key primary care workers and individuals over 75 will be included in the second tier of vaccine distribution in the coming weeks. Vice President Mike Pence told the nation’s governors in a phone call Monday – a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Beast – that Operation Warp Speed is on track to oversee the distribution of 11 million doses of vaccine this week. The 11 million represents a combination of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. About 4 million are scheduled to go out next week.
Members of the White House COVID task force met on Monday to discuss the rollout of the vaccine and briefly discussed some states’ announcements last week that they had received as much as 30 percent fewer doses of Pfizer than expected. A senior government official said governors who spoke out about the shortages were working on old numbers and forecasts. The Daily Beast previously reported that some states had received projections for the vaccine that were twice the number of doses they received this week.
At Monday’s meeting of the working group, officials tempered concerns about future distribution issues and said states would receive assignment numbers tomorrow for next week. Another senior government official pointed to the updated schedule for allocations announcements — states had been told earlier Friday what they would get in the coming week; now they are told Tuesday – as part of why states had not received the expected amount of doses. The number of doses available on Tuesday does not necessarily include the doses that could be available that Friday, the official said.
Alex Azar and Pence, Secretary of Health and Human Services, acknowledged the change to the allocation schedule on Monday’s call with governors. And General Gustave Perna, the head of Operation Warp Speed, also acknowledged last week’s confusion, calling it a “mistake.”
“In all the deliveries we’ve made so far, one mistake has been made and we corrected it immediately,” said Perna.
Azar assured the governors that the distribution process will be smoother in the future.
“We are continuing to create more and more channels of communication with you … to avoid confusion about numbers or assignments,” Azar said during the interview.
Fauci, Azar and NIH Health Director Francis Collins will receive the Moderna vaccine at a televised event on Tuesday. President-elect Joe Biden received his shot with Pfizer on Monday.
As more and more vaccine doses come across the country, Fauci said he continues to be concerned about vaccine hesitation and is convincing the American public, including health professionals, that the vaccine is both safe and effective.
Fauci and other task force officials have appeared on television in recent weeks and conducted interviews to talk about the importance of vaccination. Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services have spoken of taking a more definitive step in promoting the vaccine, including producing ads for television and social media, two officials with knowledge of the plan said. During the call with the governors, Robert Redfield and Azar, director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called on governors to continue to get the vaccine and do so publicly.
Biden’s team is also in the process of drafting more definitive plans for the rollout of vaccinations to the general public and to ensure that the majority of Americans are immunized this spring and summer, people familiar with planning the elected president. That planning included finding new ways to help states ensure their residents are informed about the vaccine they will be receiving and the steps taken by the company and the federal government to ensure its safety.