Anthony FauciAnthony FauciDouble masking works, says CDC study Over 30 percent of Americans say they won’t get COVID-19 vaccine: poll Obama calls for Americans to get vaccinated in tweet addressing misinformation MORE said he thinks that by April it will be “open season” for vaccinations in the country, and anyone who wants a shot will be able to get one.
Speaking on NBC’s “Today,” Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases doctor and science adviser to President BidenJoe BidenFormer Republican officials in talks to form center-right anti-Trump party: report Biden raises concerns with Xi in first call with Chinese leader as president Castro: Trump further incited the mob ‘against his own vice president’ MORE, predicted the rate of vaccinations will pick up in the spring as more doses become available and more locations start administering shots.
He said the pace will increase because of the administration’s programs to allow pharmacies and community health centers to administer shots.
“I would imagine by the time we get to April, that would be what I call … open season. Namely, virtually everybody and anybody in any category can start to get vaccinated,” Fauci said.
“By the time we get to April, that will be what I would call open season,” Dr. Anthony Fauci says about the timeline for vaccination availability for all groups to begin getting shots. pic.twitter.com/BMGD3YSVex
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 11, 2021
However, he added that it will still take “several more months” to get the vaccine into people’s arms, but that hopefully the overwhelming majority of people in this country will be vaccinated by the end of the summer.
While the pace has picked up to about 1.5 million people a day, the nation’s vaccine rollout has been uneven, plagued by supply shortages and differing approaches in every state.
There are only two companies with authorized vaccines in the U.S., but Johnson & Johnson is set for federal review at the end of this month, potentially adding to the available supply as soon as March.
New cases, hospitalizations and even deaths, which had been at historic highs following the holiday season, have steadily declined in recent weeks, but about 3,000 people are still dying a day.
Experts have likened the current situation to the calm before the next storm, when more contagious variants become the dominant strain in the country. Still, while Fauci said he was taking the threats of new variants seriously, he was not overly worried.
“The sobering news is that it does spread more rapidly. We know that from the U.K. experience. The uplifting news is that the vaccines that we now have, the Moderna and Pfizer and very likely the ones coming online soon, seem to do well against this U.K. variant,” Fauci said.
“The uplifting news is that the vaccines that we now have seem to do well against this U.K. variant.” -Dr. Anthony Fauci
Read More: Fauci: April should be ‘open season’ for vaccinations