Anthony FauciAnthony FauciFauci: US could soon administer more than 1 million vaccines doses per day How to increase vaccination and mask-wearing to defeat COVID-19 FDA: It would be ‘premature’ to change the way COVID-19 vaccines are administered MORE, the government’s leading infectious disease expert, said the U.S. could soon be administering a million coronavirus vaccines per day as the Trump administration faces criticism over its rollout of the shots.
Fauci expressed confidence that the rate of vaccinations would ramp up after the White House fell far short of its goal of inoculating 20 million people by the end of 2020. As of Tuesday morning, more than 4.8 million doses have been injected.
“Any time you start a big program, there’s always glitches. I think the glitches have been worked out,” Fauci told The Associated Press in an interview.
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“Once you get rolling and get some momentum, I think we can achieve 1 million a day or even more,” he said, adding that President-elect Joe BidenJoe BidenThe Memo: Georgia voters deliver blow to Trump Warnock win puts Democrats within reach of Senate majority Eric Trump warns of primary challenges for Republicans who don’t object to election results MORE’s plan to inject 100 million Americans with the vaccine in his first 100 days “a very realistic, important, achievable goal.”
Biden’s plan would amount to a million vaccines per day.
Vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have begun being administered, though the White House has widely left plans for distribution and inoculations to state governments.
The infectious disease expert said he is hoping the country can achieve herd immunity by the start of next fall, which he said would require between 70 percent and 85 percent of the population to get inoculated.
Fauci’s remarks on the vaccine come as the nation heads into what is anticipated to be the most dangerous phase of the pandemic, with cases and hospitalizations spiking across the country.
There have been over 20.6 million confirmed cases in the U.S. since the pandemic began, and over 177,000 were reported Monday. Nearly 345,000 people in the U.S. have died.