Dr. Jerome Adams detailed how health care capacity is the biggest problem caused by the current spike and how a vaccine could be most effective in helping
A Covid-19 vaccine will not show an impact on mortality rate immediately, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday.
“[It’s] likely you’re not going to see a measurable diminution for at least several weeks or if not longer. But it will come, I guarantee you.”
The top infectious disease expert in the US pointed to the time frame of administering the vaccine and the time take for it to create the immunity in the system.
“When you vaccinate people — not only the health care workers, but vulnerable people, for example in nursing homes — by the time they get an immunity, which would be, you know, you have a prime and then you have a boost and then you have seven to 10 days after the boost.”
He insisted that if an adequate amount of people were to get vaccinated on time, this pandemic could be under control.
Remember: The US Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved a coronavirus vaccine, but both Pfizer and Moderna have apply to the FDA for emergency use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine. The FDA will meet with its advisory committee this month to review Pfizer’s and Moderna’s applications.
In the meantime, Fauci expressed concerns about Christmas celebrations that could cause cases to spike.
“It’s a longer holiday, he said. “I think it could be even more of a challenge than what we saw with Thanksgiving. So I hope that people realize that and understand that as difficult as this is, nobody wants to modify, if not essentially shut down their holiday season. But we’re at a critical time in this country right now. We’ve got to not walk away from the facts and the data. This is tough going for all of us.”
The current surge in cases across the country is already concerning but “it was predictable,” Fauci added.
“We had a very high baseline of cases to begin with. You know, even at the time when things seemed to have been calming down, it never got down to a low baseline. Then we had a combination of a bunch of things, all of which synergized to put us in the difficult position we’re in now,” he told CNN, referring to cold weather, flu season and the holiday celebrations.
As the cold weather sets in, Fauci says he has transitioned from running to power-walking for three or four miles with his wife.
Watch the interview:
