Anthony Fauci
Anthony Fauci Many Top NBA Players Are Concerned About Promoting COVID-19 Vaccines: White House Report Says Teacher Vaccinations Are Not Required for Schools to Reopen John Berman CNN’s John Berman Blames White House Assistant on School Reopening:, the country’s top infectious disease expert, said Thursday that a vaccine for a variant of the coronavirus believed to come from South Africa will likely take “several months”.
“That will likely take several months,” said Fauci, asking about the timeline for the vaccine development by Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC.
“For example, we already work together with the company Moderna. Pfizer does it alone, I’m sure. It’s a good company, a great company, ”he added. “But what we’re doing is we’re working with them to get a sample of the vaccine that you can actually code for the protein that is the correct protein for the South African isolate.”
Fauci added that “there is sufficient protection in the efficacy of the vaccine that there is still some protection, especially against serious diseases. So, while the vaccine may not protect against mild to moderate illness with the South African isolate, if you look at the data, it strongly suggests that it will perform quite well against serious illnesses, which is to keep people out of the hospital and prevent them. from dying. “
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases added that “what we’re finally doing, while waiting that we might have to use this – we don’t know yet – is to now make other versions of the vaccine that specifically target against the South African isolate. “
On Thursday, Fauci also warned that extreme weather in some regions of the country would likely lead to vaccination delays.
“We’ll just have to catch up once the weather rises a little bit, the ice melts and we can get the trucks out, and get the people out and the vaccine in people’s arms,” Fauci told MSNBC on Thursday. “We’re just going to have to catch up, which is to do double the time when this thing gets clear.”