Fauci says things won't return to normal 'until 2022' even if majority gets vaccinated

The United States of America is unlikely to return to normal until the "end of next year or perhaps 2022", Dr Anthony Fauci said on October 28. Although he claimed that a COVID-19 vaccine would "certainly" be available in the “next few months”, he said that it would take at least two years to vaccinate Americans and get things back to normal. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Heath Infectious Disease made the remarks while speaking at a webinar hosted by the University of Melbourne.

"If we get a vaccination campaign, and by the second or third quarter of 2021 we have vaccinated a substantial proportion of the people, I think it will be easier by the end of 2021, and perhaps even into the next year, before we start having some semblances of normality," Fauci said during the University of Melbourne panel.

The top immunologist also noted that political division as well as fear of economic loss also affected how the country was currently performing. Talking about the masks becoming a symbol of a person’s political inclination, Fauci said that it has been painful to witness this divisiveness centred around a public health issue.  “In fact, people were ridiculed for their mask, depending upon which side of a particular political spectrum you were at," he added. 

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Potential vaccine by November 

Last week, Fauci had said that a verdict on the safety and effectiveness of a potential vaccine could come by the end of November. Fauci, while speaking to BBC's Andrew Marr, said that if the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine is proved by the end of November the limited set of doses will be available for frontline workers. 

Fauci was answering a question on the United States President Donald Trump's remark during the latter's final presidential debate, where the Republican leader had claimed that a vaccine will be available within weeks to come. "I think we will know, yes. I believe he said that correctly. We will know whether a vaccine is safe and effective by the end of November, the beginning of December," Fauci said. 

Image: AP

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