Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, said that “we could start talking about real normalcy again” in 2021 with the development and implementation of a COVID-19 vaccine. Fauci’s comments came as the number of coronavirus cases in the United States exceeded 4 million.
Fauci said in an interview with CNN’s David Axelrod on Thursday that the companies behind the vaccines told him that “they would receive tens of millions of doses earlier in the year, and even hundreds of millions as we move forward in 2021.”
“The timetable he suggested for reaching 2021 well into the year, so I can think of a successful vaccine, if we could vaccinate the overwhelming majority of the population, we could start talking about real normalcy again,” Fauci said. “But it is going to be a gradual process.”
Fauci made the comments ahead of next week’s launch of an unprecedented effort by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to find a vaccine, called “Operation Deformation Speed.” The operation aims to deliver 300 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, he told CBS News The launch of a phase three test with Moderna and the NIH is expected on Monday. The goal is to enroll 30,000 people.
“I have never seen anything this way, as we have tried to do and are doing now, for vaccine development. And the government, by providing additional resources, has also now made it possible to plan the manufacture of vaccine doses, even before know if the vaccine is going to work, “Collins said.
Fauci also spoke about his sometimes contentious relationship with President Trump, as he publicly disagreed with Trump’s more optimistic assessment of the coronavirus crisis. Fauci said he had “a pretty good relationship with the president,” despite the fact that the White House previously tried to discredit him.
Fauci said he was receiving “hate mails and serious threats,” which led to him being assigned personal security.
“I think as much as people inappropriately make me a hero, and I’m not a hero, I’m just doing my job, there are people who get very angry at the thought that I’m interfering in their life because I’m pushing a public health agenda,” he said. Fauci.
The United States reported more than 68,000 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Thursday, outpacing the country beyond 4 million. President Trump announced later Thursday that he is cancelled Jacksonville, Florida, part of the Republican National Convention next month, citing the coronavirus crisis.
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