“If you really want to study it to see that – the amount of time it will take, the amount of people you would have to put in the study – by that time, we will be in the arena of having enough, having enough vaccines to circulate from any way. So, from a theoretical point of view, it would be good to know, if you give just one dose, how long the durability lasts and what is the level of effect, “said Fauci in” Meet the Press “.
“But what we have now and what we must follow is the scientific data that we have accumulated and it is really very solid. We know that with each of them, it is 21 or 28 days. You can do both. You can receive the first dose from so many people at the same time as, within reason, the schedule of the second dose. So it would be great to have the study, but I don’t think we could do it in time. “
In terms of manufacturing, Fauci emphasized that the doses are “going out of line as fast as we can”. He specifically cited an increase in the available doses of Moderna and Pfizer in March and April, as well as the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine that is expected to be available in the coming months.
Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb also commented on the availability of current Covid-19 vaccines, as well as their efficiency, especially with regard to new emerging variants of the virus.
“We can assume that the new vaccines are likely to be about 20 percent less effective against these new variants in Brazil and South Africa,” said Gottlieb on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program.
But Gottlieb noted that even though protection against the new variants is not as “deep” with current vaccines, “you are still getting very good protection with these vaccines.”
When asked whether the Biden government’s distribution plan, based on giving population-based doses, is still the best method, Gottlieb said: “I think for now [it is.]”
“We had a few days when 2 million vaccines were delivered,” he said. “I think we will see this more consistently. This will be the execution rate. By the end of March, we will have delivered 250 million vaccines to the market, if the J&J vaccine is authorized. In April, it will likely deliver another 100 million vaccines to the market. “