“If you … put the pedal on the floor, you can do it,” Fauci told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Thursday night.
However, that timeframe would be shortened if some people were given one-time vaccines. Johnson & Johnson has produced one such candidate and is expected to report on Phase 3 clinical trials by the end of the month.
And Fauci said Friday he believes the US can fire faster than 1 million shots a day.
“I want it to be a lot more,” Fauci told CNN’s John Berman. “The goal (of 100 million shots in 100 days) has been set but you don’t want to fixate on it: “Was that an under- or an overshoot?”
“If we can do better, which I personally probably will do, then great.”
The US recently took 1 million new recordings in a 24 hour period. This comes from changes in the data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from Wednesday morning through Thursday morning. This is only the second time its one day surge has exceeded 1 million.
“The only way to solve a problem is to own it,” he said on Thursday. “Everyone wears a mask. Everyone is following public health measures. Get the vaccine out as soon as possible. Do whatever you can to get the doses available and get them into people’s arms.”
Seniors wait for hours in LA.
Some state and local officials say they are not getting the vaccines fast enough to meet demand.
Georgia has high numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, and the 120,000 doses the state is allotting per week are not enough to vaccinate seniors and other high-risk residents, Governor Brian Kemp said.
“We’ll still have a lot more demand than supply,” said Kemp.
Due to supply shortages in New York City, there are not enough doses to vaccinate members of the city’s police and fire departments, authorities told CNN on Thursday. There is still enough for those who have already made appointments and those who have already received their first dose, the fire department said.
The lines at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Thursday were mostly filled with people over 65 years of age, some of whom waited five hours for the vaccine, Mayor Eric Garcetti said.
“There may be a wait … so use the bathroom beforehand, bring water and snacks, and make sure your gas tank is full or your car is charged,” he said.
Biden’s choice for general surgeon Dr. Vivek Murthy said the US needs to do more to speed up vaccinations.
“We can’t take a year to reach the critical level of vaccination that we need in this country,” Murthy told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday. “We have to be there earlier.”
Most Americans don’t know when or where to get a vaccine, including older Americans who are already eligible to get a vaccine in a growing number of states, “Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF, said in a press release on Friday.” Understandably, a large number of people are frustrated, angry, and confused. ”
The Biden administration will “try to … (a) build a national clearinghouse” that will provide information on where people can get shots, the White House chief of staff said Thursday evening.
“It needs to be earlier and more transparent so people can figure out how to get their shot and where to get their shot,” Ron Klain told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.
New vaccines could be on the way
Officials hope that new coronavirus vaccines will get approved and speed up administration.
Currently, the US has approved Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
But Johnson & Johnson, Assuming it receives FDA approval, the plan is “to have enough vaccines for 100 million Americans by spring,” said board member Dr. Mark McClellan told CNBC on Thursday.
Fauci said the company’s vaccine was “just around the corner” as it applied for emergency approval from the FDA.
“You are probably still a few weeks away from reviewing the data so the FDA can assess if we are in a situation where we could move forward and consider making it public,” he said Thursday.
There would be benefits to this candidate, including the fact that it is a single shot and that it doesn’t require storage at extremely low temperatures, he said.
Another candidate in AstraZeneca’s Phase 3 trials is “a little behind, but not too far behind,” said Fauci.
Last week, the chief advisor to the federal government’s Operations Warp Speed program said he hoped the AstraZeneca candidate could get US approval by the end of March, if data shows it is effective.
“Hopefully the vaccine will be effective again, as the studies conducted in Brazil and the UK have shown,” said Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor to Operation Warp Speed. “So maybe a permit somewhere towards the end of March and a significant number of doses available at that time.”
CNN’s Naomi Thomas, Michael Nedelman, Deidre McPhillips, Maria Cartaya, Lindsay Benson, Lauren Mascarenhas, Alexandra Meeks, Evan Simko-Bednarski, Andrea Diaz and Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report.
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