In fact, Fauci said the positive words you’ve likely been waiting to hear: “This outbreak will end.” He added, “We will get a vaccine. And then if we combine a vaccine with prudent public health measures, we can put this outbreak behind us.”
Levy told Fauci that he’s among the majority of Americans who are suspicious that a vaccine might be rushed before the November election. That statistic he’s referring to is likely from a poll out of the Pew Research Center, which found that 77 percent of Americans believe a vaccine would be approved before it could be proven safe and effective and 78 percent believe the process is moving too quickly. As a result, only 21 percent of American adults surveyed said they definitely plan to get the vaccine, a drastic drop from May when 42 percent said they would get vaccinated.
Work on vaccine against virus “The fear is understandable, but if I give you the facts, I hope that you would see it’s not reasonable,” Fauci said, adding he has full confidence in the process. “The way the system is set up, there [are] independent bodies that have access to the data that no one else has access to. And they make the decision based on the scientific data, whether the vaccine is safe and effective .” This Data and Safety Monitoring Board, made up of clinicians, vaccinologists, statisticians, and ethicists, are “the only ones … who intermittently look at the data and they can come to any of a number of conclusions.”
With five vaccines now in the final stage of trials, Fauci reiterated the vaccine timeline he’s previously discussed. He believes “it is likely that we will know whether we have a safe and effective vaccine somewhere around November and December.” He added there will be about 100 million doses by the end of the year for those who need it most, and up to 700 million doses by the end of April for the rest of the population.