-
Institutions like hospitals and possibly schools will require a person to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, predicted Dr. Anthony Fauci.
-
“I would not be surprised, as we have entered the full scope of [COVID-19] vaccination, that some companies, some hospitals, some organizations may require [COVID-19] vaccination, “he said in an interview with Newsweek.
-
The vaccine’s launch was slower than anticipated. About 3.5 million doses have been distributed since the Food and Drug Administration approved vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
-
Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Related: What is the COVID-19 vaccine like
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist, said he expects coronavirus vaccination to be mandatory in some institutions in the future.
In an interview with Newsweek published on Friday, Fauci said he was “sure” that institutions like hospitals would make the vaccine mandatory.
“I’m not sure [the vaccine is] going to be mandatory from the point of view of the central government, as mandates from the federal government, “he said.” But there are going to be individual institutions that I’m sure are going to impose that. “
Fauci cited his own experience with the National Institutes of Health, which mandates that all employees and contractors receive annual flu and hepatitis B vaccines.
“I have to get certified every year,” he told Newsweek. “If I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t be able to serve patients. So in that regard, I wouldn’t be surprised, as we’ve come into the full scope [COVID-19] vaccination, that some companies, some hospitals, some organizations may require [COVID-19] vaccination.”
Fauci, longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also said that schools may be among the institutions that require the vaccine. It is also “quite possible,” he said, that the vaccine is necessary for travel to and from the United States.
“Everything will be on the table for discussion” within the next Biden administration, he said. The Biden transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision to standardize the vaccine as a travel requirement is not something Fauci can make, he said. But he thinks it would be a smart move, he told Newsweek.
“Yellow fever is a good example. So we, in this country, do not need [people] to get a yellow fever vaccine when you go [to] somewhere. It is the place where you are going that requires it, “he said.” I went to Liberia during the Ebola outbreak. I had to get the yellow fever vaccine or they wouldn’t let me in Liberia. “
In the United States, about 3.5 million doses have been distributed since the Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Susie Neilson, from Business Insider, previously reported that the vaccine’s launch was slower than expected and, at this rate, it will take nine years to achieve widespread vaccination.
On Tuesday, President-elect Joe Biden criticized the slow distribution of vaccines.
“The effort to distribute and administer the vaccine is not progressing as it should,” said Biden in Wilmington, Delaware. At this rate, he said, “it will take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people.”
Read the original article on Business Insider