“When you put … the pedal on the ground, you can do it,” Fauci told Chris Cuomo of CNN on Thursday.
At the current rate of vaccinations, this necessary limit will not be reached until February 2022, but Fauci said that employees must and will increase production and distribution “involving community vaccine centers, fully involving pharmacies, using mobile units to enter the inaccessible places. “
Fauci’s assessment offers a glimpse of hope, as predictions predict that the death toll from the virus is likely to reach 500,000 next month.
“The only way to solve a problem is to assume it,” he said. “Everyone wears a mask, everyone adheres to public health measures, gets the vaccine as soon as possible, does everything possible to get the doses available and put them in people’s arms.”
Seniors spend hours waiting in LA
More than a million coronavirus vaccines were administered on Thursday – the second time that so many doses were administered in one day, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And while that has raised the total to more than 17.5 million doses administered, officials say they are not getting the vaccines fast enough to meet demand.
In Georgia, officials are seeing a high number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, and the 120,000 doses distributed per week to the state are not enough to vaccinate the elderly and other high-risk residents, said Governor Brian Kemp.
“We will still have much more demand than supply,” said Kemp.
Supply restrictions in New York City mean that there are not enough doses to vaccinate members of the NYPD and FDNY, the agencies told CNN on Thursday. It still works for those who already have an appointment and for those who have already received the first dose, said the FDNY.
The queues at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium on Thursday were crowded in large part by people over 65, some waiting for five hours for the vaccine, said Mayor Eric Garcetti.
“There may be a wait … so use the bathroom in advance, bring water and snacks, and make sure your gas tank is full or your car is loaded,” he said.
President Joe Biden’s choice for surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, said the United States needs to do more to speed up vaccinations.
“We cannot take a year to reach the critical vaccination levels we need in this country,” Murthy told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer newspaper. “We have to get there earlier.”
Most Americans do not know when or where to get a vaccine, including older Americans, who are already eligible to get a vaccine in an increasing number of states, “said KFF President and CEO Drew Altman in a statement to press on Friday. ” Understandably. a large number of people are frustrated, angry and confused. ”
New vaccines may be on the way
Authorities hope that new coronavirus vaccines will be approved and help speed up administration.
Currently, the US has approved vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
However, Johnson & Johnson is conducting clinical trials on a “very large scale” and plans to have “enough vaccines for 100 million Americans by spring,” board member Dr. Mark McClellan told CNBC on Thursday.
Dr. Fauci said the company’s vaccine is “very close” to seeking emergency FDA authorization.
“They are probably a few weeks away from getting the data analyzed, for the FDA to assess whether or not we are in a situation where we can move on and start thinking about getting it out to the public,” he said.
The new vaccine will come with advantages, he said. It will come with a single injection and will not need to remain in the cold climate that made storing and transporting existing vaccines so difficult, said Fauci.
“AstraZeneca is not there yet, you know it is being tested in several countries, but it is a little behind, but not far behind,” said Fauci.
Last week, the federal government’s Operation Warp Speep program said it hoped to obtain authorization by the end of March, said chief adviser Moncef Slaoui.
“We hope that the vaccine will be effective again, as demonstrated in tests carried out in Brazil and the United Kingdom,” said Slaoui. “So, maybe an approval somewhere in late March, and a significant number of doses available at that time.”
CNN’s Michael Nedelman, Deidre McPhillips, Maria Cartaya, Lindsay Benson, Lauren Mascarenhas, Alexandra Meeks, Evan Simko-Bednarski, Andrea Diaz, Jacqueline Howard and Nick Neville contributed to this report.