U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said December 30, 2020 that the United States can be vaccinated against the general public against the novel coronavirus from April 2021, and life will generally return to normal in early autumn.
“[The U.S. government] originally intended to get 20 million doses of vaccines by the end of December [2020] … 11 million doses have been distributed, and two to three million people have been vaccinated,” Fauci said on videolinking California Gov. Gavin Newsom on the same day.
“But as we move into January (2021), I think we’ll be able to speed up and catch up.” Fauci said he expects that the “priority population” will be able to complete vaccination by late March or early April 2021 and “anyone who wants to be vaccinated” in April.
“If we continue to get the vaccinations from April to July and we’ll get enough herd immunity by early fall to get us [life] largely back to normal,” Fauci said, schools, movie theaters, stadiums, restaurants can reopen at that time.
In accordance with the recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, priority is given to vaccinations for medical staff and elderly people in nursing homes throughout the United States, followed by front-line workers such as people aged 75 and above, police and firefighters.
President-elect Joseph Biden criticized the current administration for being “too lagging” in vaccine distribution, December 29, 2020. President Donald Trump responded that the federal government shipped the vaccine to designated places and the distribution was the responsibility of the states.
Biden promised to complete at least 100 million doses of vaccination within 100 days of taking office in January 2021. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House Coronavirus Response Task Force. He has been nominated by Biden as the president’s chief medical adviser.
