As the US approves Covid-19 vaccines for emergency use, the job is to encourage people that vaccination against Covid-19 is “something you want to do for yourself, for your family, for the future of our country” , Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Thursday.
So much misinformation about vaccines is circulating that even health professionals are reluctant to get vaccinated, Collins told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
‘I’m a doctor. I am a scientist. I run the NIH. I’ve had the opportunity to be closely involved every step of the way here in the development of these vaccines, ”said Collins. “No shortcuts have been created. There is no hidden information. There are no Bill Gates chips going in the syringes – all the crazy stuff you read on social media, but people are inundated with all kinds of crazy information. “
Collins warned that if the US doesn’t achieve a 70 to 80% immunization rate, “we could lose even more lives and that would be the worst possible tragedy.”
He urged Americans to take the raging coronavirus pandemic seriously.
“Let me advocate the Americans,” Collins said, as the number of Covid-19 deaths topped 4,000 on Wednesday and hospitalizations and the number of cases continued to shatter records.
“Whatever you have come to, as to the conclusion about your own ability to reverse this, put it aside,” he urged, “and let me talk to you here for a minute.”
“We know that these masks that we should all wear are not political statements, but life-saving medical devices,” said Collins.
“If we were okay today decided to put all those arguments about politics and invasions of freedom and everything else aside and just say, I’m going to wear this when I’m out of my house, then I’m going to avoid being indoors with other people especially if they don’t have masks on I will be part of the solution to protect myself, but also to protect my neighbors, my grandparents, all those people who are still there and could still be the next victims, should we be the a chance to drag this over the next few months while we wait for the vaccine, ”he said.
“We’ve got a few dark months left,” Collins said. ‘If we don’t act on this point, we’ll try to stop this horrible upward curve of hospitalizations and cases and deaths.
According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 310,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 and more than 17.1 million have been infected.
Watch: