Fauci wants Biden administration to ensure efficient distribution of COVID-19 vaccines

The top infectious disease expert of the United States, Dr Anthony Fauci on Monday said the first thing he wants President-elect Joe Biden's administration to do, is to ensure efficient and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to as many people as possible. He also warned that Christmas celebrations could trigger the vast spread of the deadly virus, even more than Thanksgiving.

"So, if there's one thing we want to jump all over is - literally do a full-court press - to get out there, engage the community," Fauci told CNN in an interview.

"Because if we could get 75 to 85% of the people in the United States vaccinated, we could crush this outbreak... We really have the capability of doing it," he added.

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Fauci also stressed the need for adequate resources in schools to keep children safe. "It looks like now that the test positive of children in school compared to the comparable community is really relatively low...The safer place to be for the children would be in school because the test positivity is really relatively low," he added.

The physician also said that he was willing to take the Covid-19 vaccine shot publicly. He further warned that Christmas celebrations could increase the surge in cases because the gatherings often start several days before the holiday and continue through New Year's.

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Fauci joins Biden's administration

Fauci is a member of the President Donald Trump administration's Coronavirus Task Force, which coordinates efforts to fight the virus. Under the Biden administration, Fauci will continue to perform this role and will additionally become a chief medical adviser for Biden on the COVID -19 pandemic. Last week, Biden invited the top infectious disease expert to join his administration and to lead his team of medical advisers in combating the pandemic.

The US continues to be the worst affected country by Coronavirus. According to Johns Hopkins University, the country has reported 14,888,471 COVID-19 cases in and 283,326 deaths thus far.

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(With inputs from agencies)