To achieve herd immunity to the coronavirus, as many as 90 percent of the population may need to be vaccinated, Anthony Fauci
Anthony Fauci DC Mayor in honor of Fauci on 80th birthday with ‘Dr. Anthony S. Fauci Day ‘Republican Club Whose Maskless Conga Line Went Viral Responds: Adults Have the Right to Make Their Own Decisions Poll: Americans Are Getting More Of The COVID-19 Vaccine MORE said in an interview published Thursday.
Fauci, the country’s best infectious disease expert in the New York Times interview that he has incrementally increased his herd immunity estimate.
Fauci said he has raised the estimates in his public statements because he thinks Americans are now able to deal with the message that getting back to normal could take longer than expected, and fewer Americans report being skeptical about taking a vaccine.
“When polls said that only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I said the herd’s immunity would cost 70 to 75 percent,” Fauci told the Times. “When newer surveys said 60 percent or more would make it, I thought, ‘I can spice this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.”
The Times noted that about a month ago, Fauci started saying that herd immunity would cost “70.75 percent” of Americans who get vaccinated.
Last week, in a interview with CNBC News, Fauci estimated “between 75 and 80, 85 percent of the population.”
At that level of vaccination, Fauci said, “we would develop an umbrella of immunity. That could protect even the vulnerable who have not been vaccinated, or those for whom the vaccine has not been effective.”
The more contagious a disease is, the higher the vaccination coverage required to reach a herd immunity threshold. For example, measles, believed to be the most contagious disease in the world, needs a herd immunity of at least 90 percent.
Fauci said experts aren’t really sure how many vaccinations are required for herd immunity, but initial estimates of 60 to 70 percent were based on early data.
“We need a little humility here,” Fauci said in the interview. ‘We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the actual range is somewhere between 70 and 90 percent. But I’m not going to say 90 percent. “
Fauci’s comments come as shown by data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just over 1 million Americans have received the first of two vaccine doses against the coronavirus, and Trump officials admit they are unlikely to give 20 million Americans the first dose by the end of the year.
Johns Hopkins University estimates more than 327,000 people in America have died from the virus, and a new CDC ensemble predicts a total of 378,000 to 419,000 COVID-19 deaths over the next four weeks on Jan. 16.
More than 3,000 people died on Wednesday for the second consecutive day, according to Johns Hopkins data.
Still, on Wednesday, the Transportation Security Administration registered 1,191,123 travelers passing through airport checkpoints, most of each day since the pandemic started in March.