The chief epidemiologist of the United States, Anthony Fauci, acknowledged this Sunday that there have been delays in the covid vaccination program – 19 in the country, but assured that it will accelerate.
“I think it’s just that we are trying to start a huge vaccine program and start off on the right foot. There have been a couple of technical problems and that is understandable “, said Fauci in statements to the ABC chain , where he pointed out that the important thing is” to see what happens in the next week or a week and a half. ”
According to the latest figures from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) , 4.2 million people had received the vaccine in the US for this Saturday, despite the fact that the authorities announced that by the end of December they would be inoculated already 20 million people .
That means that only one has been vaccinated % of the 20 million citizens who were expected .
Improvements in recent days
However, Fauci underlined that In the last 3 days, 1.5 million people have received the vaccine: “That is an average of 500, 000 a day, which is much better than the first days, when it was much less. ”
“ We are not where we want to be, there is no doubt, but I think we can get there if we accelerate and (…) see what happens in the next weeks of January ”, he added, although he pointed out that, for the vaccination program to run smoothly, there must be a “real alliance” between the federal government of the country and the local governments.
For his part, Moncef Slaoui, main adviser of the White House operation against the “Warp Speed” pandemic, also admitted in an interview on CBS that “we have to improve”, but pointed to the lack of information and of communication by the states as one of the main problems that are being registered in the distribution of vaccines.
In line with the arguments of President Donald Trump , who has blamed the states for the slow vaccinations, Slaoui asked state authorities to let the federal government know where A greater number of doses is needed and he assured that as soon as they receive a request they will come to support.
“We are here waiting to help. Any specific request (from the states), we will help, but we have to have specific requests from them ”, he insisted.
A single dose
The head of “Warp Speed” also raised the possibility that only the first dose of Moderna vaccine be administered in some citizens to reach the largest number of people as soon as possible, since it is known than to give half the dose to people between 16 and 55 years gives an “identical immune response” to the two doses .
For this reason, he said he was in talks with both the pharmaceutical company and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to discuss the reduction to a single dose in that sector of the population.
Both Fauci and Slaoui also spoke about the new strain of the virus discovered in the United Kingdom and whose presence has already been confirmed by three states in the nation (California, Colorado and Florida), and clarified in separate statements that although it is believed that it is more easily spread, it is not more virulent.
“In other words, it does not make people sicker or cause more deaths ”, Fauci summarized, who also emphasized that developed coronavirus vaccines would continue to be effective against this variant .
“It does not seem to evade the protection that you would have from the antibodies that induce the vaccines that we are currently using,” said the epidemiologist in reference to the information they have received from scientists in the United Kingdom, and that van to be confirmed by experts in the USA
The United States continues to be the country most affected by the pandemic , with 20, 4 million confirmed cases and more of 350,000 deceased, according to an independent count from Johns Hopkins University.
Shortly after is that the country exceeded the 350, 000 Covid fatalities – 19, Fauci admitted who never thought that the figure would be so high , something that he attributed to “many factors”, including inconsistency in compliance with public measures, the low temperatures that limit activities abroad and trips associated with the Christmas period.
“All these ingredients make it a terrible situation. (…) There is no way to escape from these figures ”, he sentenced.