“If you … put the pedal on the ground, you can get it done,” Fauci told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Thursday.
At the current rate of vaccination, that necessary threshold will not be reached until February 2022, but Fauci said officials must and will ramp up production and distribution by “ getting local vaccine centers, fully engaging the pharmacies, using mobile units to access inaccessible places. ” “
Fauci’s assessment offers a glimmer of hope, as predictions predict that the death toll from the virus is likely to exceed 500,000 in the coming month.
“The only way to solve a problem is to own it,” he said. “Everyone wears a mask, everyone follows public health measures, get the vaccine out as soon as possible, do everything you can to get the doses available and get them into people’s arms.”
Seniors wait for hours in LA
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a million vaccination shots containing the coronavirus were administered Thursday – the second time that many doses were given in a day.
And while that brought the total to more than 17.5 million doses administered, officials say they are not getting the vaccines fast enough to meet demand.
In Georgia, officials are seeing a high rate of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, and the 120,000 doses assigned to the state each week are not enough to vaccinate seniors and other high-risk residents, Governor Brian Kemp said.
“We will still have much more demand than supply,” said Kemp.
Supply restrictions in New York City mean there aren’t enough doses to vaccinate members of the NYPD and FDNY, the agencies told CNN on Thursday. There are still plenty for those who have already made appointments and those who had already received their first dose, the FDNY said.
The lines at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Thursday were largely filled with people over the age of 65 and some waited five hours for the vaccine, Mayor Eric Garcetti said.
“There may be a wait … so use the toilet beforehand, bring water and snacks and make sure your gas tank is full or your car is charged,” he said.
President Joe Biden’s choice of surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy said the US should do more to speed up vaccinations.
“We can’t take a year to get to the critical vaccination levels we need in this country,” Murthy told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “We have to get there earlier.”
Most Americans don’t know when and where to get a vaccine, including older Americans, who are already eligible for a vaccine in a growing number of states, “KFF President and CEO Drew Altman said in a Friday release.” large numbers of people are frustrated, angry and confused. ”
New vaccines may come
Officials hope that new vaccines against the coronavirus will be approved and help speed up administration.
Currently, the US has approved vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna.
However, Johnson & Johnson is conducting “very large-scale” clinical trials and plans to have “enough vaccines for 100 million Americans by the spring,” said board member Dr. Mark McClellan Thursday to CNBC.
Dr. Fauci said the company’s vaccine is “around the corner” in filing for emergency use approval from the FDA.
“They’re probably a few weeks away from reviewing the data, to let the FDA assess whether we are in a situation where we can move forward and think about making it public,” he said. .
The new vaccine will bring benefits, he said. It comes all at once, and it doesn’t have to stay in the cold climate that has made storing and transporting existing vaccines so difficult, Fauci said.
“AstraZeneca isn’t quite there yet, you know there’s one that’s being tested in several countries, but it’s a little behind, but not too far behind,” said Fauci.
Last week, the federal government’s Operation Warp Speep program said it hopes to get approval before the end of March, chief adviser Moncef Slaoui said.
“Hopefully the vaccine will be effective again, as shown in the studies conducted in Brazil and in the UK,” said Slaoui. “So maybe an approval sometime by the end of March, and a significant number of doses available around that time.”
CNN’s Michael Nedelman, Deidre McPhillips, Maria Cartaya, Lindsay Benson, Lauren Mascarenhas, Alexandra Meeks, Evan Simko-Bednarski, Andrea Diaz, Jacqueline Howard and Nick Neville contributed to this report.