Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Wednesday that receiving the COVID-19 vaccination does not give people a ‘free travel pass’ as health officials have announced the complete vaccination of just 3.8 million Americans and hundreds have been seen lining up to receive the jab at Dodger Stadium in the hard-hit California.
The country’s leading infectious disease specialist appeared in a CNN Global Town Hall hosted by Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta when he answered a question from a viewer about when immunity begins after receiving the vaccine.
The retired nurse, Carole Gardner, explained to Fauci that she and her husband were unable to travel to see their grandchildren. She explained that she and her husband will receive the second dose of Moderna vaccine on February 19.
‘When will we have immunity and when will we be able to travel?’ Gardner asks.
In response, Fauci said: ‘Maximum immunity starts about 10 days to two weeks and beyond after the second dose … That would give you about 94-95 percent effectiveness and a good safety profile.’
However, Fauci warned that ‘traveling is not a good idea, period’.
Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Wednesday that receiving the COVID-19 vaccination does not give people a ‘free travel pass’
As of Wednesday night, drivers were still lined up for the COVID-19 vaccination and testing in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
“We don’t want people to think, because they’ve been vaccinated, that other public health recommendations just don’t apply,” he continued.
“So being vaccinated does not mean that I now have a free pass to travel, nor that I have a free pass to put aside all public health measures that we talk about all the time,” said Fauci.
In the meantime, hundreds of drivers were seen lining up on Wednesday night to be vaccinated at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. More than 1 million cases have been reported in Los Angeles County and at least 15,897 people have died.
Their comments came just a day after Johnson and Johnson announced that they are likely to publish the results of phase three tests of their single injection coronavirus vaccine next week.
Its vaccine is cheaper and easier to store and transport, which, together with requiring only one dose, can help accelerate the slow implementation of the vaccine in the United States.
The 100 million doses Johnson & Johnson promised to the US would increase US supplies by about 25 percent.
President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response team itself admitted, however, that it will be months before anyone who wants a vaccine can get it and that “we will have unforeseen problems” at launch, said the acting administrator of the Centers for Disease Control. Medicare Medicaid Services Andy Slavitt.
This Wednesday morning, drivers were seen waiting in line at the mega vaccination station COVID-19 that was set up in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium
Vaccination started five weeks ago, but only 6.2% of the population in the United States received the first doses of Pfizer or Moderna two-dose vaccines. There are about 20.7 million with at least one dose of the vaccine.
About 3.8 million people have been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The death toll in the U.S. has increased to 428,654, including 3,990 new deaths. More than 25 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
Fortunately, cases, deaths and hospitalizations fell last week compared to previous weeks, but remain high, with an average of 3,287 people dying each day.
Dozens of precious doses of the two vaccines were missed because no one could be found to take them before they spoiled, or due to careless mistakes like freezers being turned off.
Johnson & Johnson’s simpler single-dose injection can be a great help in solving some of these problems. She has a contract with the United States for at least one million doses and has pledged to distribute one billion doses globally this year.
About 20.7 million received at least one dose of the vaccine. About 3.8 million people have been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Fauci said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is being tested on the highly infectious ‘supercovid’ variants in South Africa and Brazil.
But even if the results are positive, the FDA should not release the vaccine for emergency use until March, raising questions about why there should be an agonizing delay of a month.
In the meantime, Biden rummaged through the bets on his vaccination target COVID-19, announcing on Monday that he thinks the United States could give more than 1.5 million vaccines a day, versus a million.
The United States is currently vaccinating 1.27 million people a day on average. Supply may be the biggest obstacle to achieving and maintaining Biden’s goal of vaccinating 1.5 million people a day.
Collectively, Moderna and Pfizer promised to supply 200 million doses by the end of March.
More than 25.5 million infections have been reported in the US since the pandemic began
Pfizer believes it can offer 20 million extra doses by then, and the US is in talks with Moderna and Pfizer to buy another 200 million doses (100 million each), which will be available this summer.
But there is no stock. The federal government is withholding sufficient supplies to cover two to three days of doses in the event of manufacturing interruptions.
Otherwise, it is counting on manufacturers to maintain a steady flow of new doses to the state, said Slavitt.
He said the government is “confident” in these manufacturers, but even he admitted that there will likely be production disruptions, and the government is planning only a small cushion in the midst of a deployment that has so far been chaotic and has left many states on the verge of running out of doses.