On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, released hopeful news about vaccine availability and the country’s lagging rollout. On NBC’s “Today” show, echoing comments from earlier in the day, Fauci said there could be an “open season” for available vaccine doses by April.
“By the time we get there in April, for better wording, I’ll call that ‘open season,’ which is that virtually anyone and everyone in any category can be vaccinated,” Fauci said. “ From then on, logistically, it would probably take several months to get the vaccine into people’s arms, so hopefully, by the mid and late summer, we could have hit the target of where we get it. talk about. – namely, the vast majority of people in this country who have been vaccinated. “
The news coincides with the Biden government’s announcement that they have purchased an additional 200 million doses of the two coronavirus vaccines, increasing the supply by 50 percent to a total of 600 million doses. By securing these supplemental vaccines, everyone eligible for vaccination will be covered by the end of July. As previously reported by the New York Times, the Trump administration dropped an offer to purchase Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine beyond the initial 100 million doses. President Joe Biden previously stated that a lack of vaccines was partly responsible for the slow introduction of vaccines in America.
On Thursday, Fauci said Americans can expect vaccinations to “pick up” very quickly. Currently, eligibility for COVID-19 varies by state and province, with priority being given to front-line workers and those over 65 who are believed to be at higher risk of serious disease outcomes.
“If you look at what’s going to happen as we go into March and April, the number of doses available will allow for a much more massive vaccination approach, which is really going much faster than what you’re seeing now,” Fauci said. “If you compare it now to what we literally did a month ago, the escalation has been really significant.”
46.3 million doses have been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); 34.7 million Americans have received the first dose and nearly 11.2 million people have received both doses. The population of the United States is approximately 331 million; Experts believe that 80 to 90% of the population should be vaccinated, or immune to the coronavirus as a result of previous infection, to achieve herd immunity.
Notably, there is no estimated timeline for when children under 16 can receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is approved for both 16-17 year olds and adults. The Moderna vaccine is approved for people 18 years of age and older, and clinical studies are currently being conducted for 12 to 17 year olds.
In an interview with Propublica, Fauci said he is hopeful that children can get the coronavirus vaccine by September 2021.
“We’re starting clinical trials in what we call age de-escalation, where you do a clinical trial with people 16 to 12, then 12 to 9, then 9 to 6,” Fauci said. “I would think that by the time we get to school, we can probably get people to get into first grade.”