Fauci tells Americans to not wait for a particular vaccine, says all are highly effective

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Adviser to US President Joe Biden, on Sunday said if he weren't vaccinated, he would take any of the three vaccines available at the moment, reasserting the safety and efficacy of all anti-COVID-19 drugs approved in the country. Fauci, while talking to CNN, urged Americans to not delay getting inoculated and take any of the three COVID-19 vaccines as quickly as possible. Fauci's comment comes a day after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted EUA to Johnson & Johnson's COVID vaccine. 

Read: COVID-19: Americans May Still Need Mask In 2022 As US Relaxes Restrictions, Says Fauci

'Do not delay getting vaccinated'

Fauci told CNN that he took what was available at the time, which is Moderna's vaccine. The nation's top infectious disease expert further added that he would have taken Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine and not waited for another had it been approved by the FDA before. Fauci said that all three vaccines are "highly effective" and people should not delay getting vaccinated over another drug. 

Read: Fauci Says Trump Did 'terrible Things' Whenever He Disagreed With Him Publicly

The US FDA granted emergency use authorisation to Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday, making it the first single-dose COVID vaccine approval in the United States. According to the FDA, trial results showed the J&J vaccine to be 72% effective in the US and 66.1% globally. Fauci's remark comes after people in the US expressed concern regarding the efficacy of the J&J vaccine. The effectiveness of the J&J vaccine is considered low as compared to Moderna and Pfizer's COVID-19 drug, both of which claim to be over 90% effective. 

"You can understand that type of a concern, but in order to really compare vaccines, you have to compare them head-to-head and these were not compared head-to-head," Fauci said. 

Read: COVID-19: Fauci Says He Was Worried About Getting Coronavirus At White House

The approval of the new vaccine comes at a time when the world, including the United States, is battling with new variants of the COVID-19 virus. Moderna and Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccines have shown to provide protection against some of the new variants. However, J&J is yet to test its vaccine against new variants circulating across the world. 

Read: Anthony Fauci Wins $1 Million Israeli Prize For 'defending Science' & Advocating Vaccines