Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said Thursday if not enough Americans get a coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available, it won’t help mitigate the spread of the virus.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Fauci addressed the nationwide wariness about the vaccine, saying even a third of Americans taking the medication won’t be enough.
“It’s a combination of how effective a vaccine is and how many people take it,” Fauci told the Journal, CNN reported. “If you have a vaccine that is highly effective and not enough people get vaccinated, you’re not going to realize the full important effect of having a vaccine.”
Three U.S.-backed drugmakers — Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca — are in the late stages of developing a vaccine, though many have expressed concern that political pressure could result in a premature and potentially unsafe product.
As of Thursday, the United States has roughly 6.6 million coronavirus cases, including 197,000 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.
