Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted on Monday that the United States may achieve “herd immunity” against the novel coronavirus “at the end of the second quarter of 2021” after the vaccine is widely distributed and vaccinated.
Fauci told NBC News host Hallie Jackson that the coronavirus vaccine should be widely available to most Americans in the spring, according to the “efficiency of promotion”.
Fauci noted that the speculation depends on whether enough people can be persuaded to get the vaccine, “sometime in late March and early April, normal healthy men and women on the street who do not have any underlying diseases may be vaccinated.”
Fauci said he hoped that the United States would get an “umbrella for herd immunity” in late spring and early summer. “By the fall, we can start to approach some degree of relief, the infection level in society will be low, and we can approach some form of normalcy,” he said.
However, Fauci also said that some special public health measures, such as the use of masks, the cancellation of activities and the strengthening of health norms, are likely to last until the “second half of 2021 and the months after”.
“There is only a possibility to consider removing public health measures if the level of social infection is so low that it no longer poses a threat to public health,” Fauci said.
In addition, in order to encourage others, Fauci has also volunteered to be publicly vaccinated in the near future. “Once it’s my turn — and probably soon, I’ll be openly vaccinated so people will see that I strongly advocate that we should do these things,” he said.
