Anthony Fauci hopes 'first doses' of COVID-19 vaccine would be available in December

If all goes well, the first doses of a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine will likely become available to some high-risk Americans in late December or early January, Dr Anthony Fauci said on October 29. The top immunologist, who had previously touted November as a month for the availability of a vaccine, asserted that looking the trial results, people could “hope” of a vaccine being available in “next few weeks”. Fauci’s remarks came while speaking to Dr France Collins, director of National Institute of health, live Facebook and Twitter.

'Prioritise those in need'

Replying to a question by a viewer, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Heath Infectious Disease said that his conclusion was based on projections from vaccine forerunners Moderna Inc and Pfizer. As of now, both the brands are in the final phase of their COVID-19 vaccine trial. Explaining if the distribution would be targeted, he said that first vaccine doses would likely to be deployed to individuals deemed most in need, like healthcare workers, at the end of December or the beginning of January."

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Just a day before, Fauci had said that the United States of America was unlikely to return to normal until the "end of next year or perhaps 2022". 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 had 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.

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