Anthony Fauci told CNN on Tuesday that Operation Warp Speed will not reach its goal of having 20 million Americans receiving the coronavirus vaccine by the end of December.
By the numbers: Only 2.1 million people received the first dose of the vaccine, with nearly 11.5 million doses distributed as of this Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- With three days to go until the end of the year, the government would need to vaccinate millions of people a day to meet the target.
What is he saying: “We are certainly not in the numbers we wanted at the end of December,” said Fauci.
- “I believe that as we move into January, we will see an increase in momentum that, I hope, will allow us to reach the projected pace that we talked about a month or two ago when we talked about the planned implementation of vaccines,” he continued.
- “We really want these priority people to be vaccinated so that we can get to what we call the ‘hunting season’ for the general population. When you get to the point where you can essentially say that anyone and everyone who wants to be vaccinated can be vaccinated, that’s when you really change the dynamics of the outbreak. “
The big picture: In the first week of Pfizer’s vaccine distribution, governors reported that they were receiving fewer allocations than expected, even when members of Operation Warp Speed said in early December that they were confident they would be able to distribute enough vaccines to vaccinate 20 million people.
- Army General Gustave Perna, a member of Operation Warp Speed responsible for distributing the vaccine, apologized for the “failure to communicate” with states about the number of doses they should receive.
- President-elect Joe Biden, who will criticize the Trump administration for his missed targets in a speech on Tuesday, said he has a plan to administer 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days.