Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday he sees the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel by next spring if the “overwhelming majority” of the 90 million people eligible for the vaccine come forward, as the delta variant of the coronavirus pushes the goal post for normalcy from this summer to 2022.
“It’s going to depend on us. It really is. It’s in our hands. Our fate is in our own hands,” Dr. Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s “Today” show. “It probably will be, you know, I’ve said a couple of times if we do it right and get through the winter, I hope as we get to the spring of 2022, we’ll get there. I hope so. It’s up to us.”
Federal and state officials saw promise in the spring and early summer as infections and hospitalizations receded alongside the vaccine rollout.
But the fast-moving variant is filling hospitals in parts of the country, especially states with low vaccination rates, and concerns around the one-two punch of delta and waning vaccine efficacy prompted officials to recommend a booster shot after eight months.
Dr. Fauci and President Biden are pleading with more people to get vaccinated as they see victory over the virus slip further away.
“If we get the overwhelming majority of those 80 to 90 million people who have not yet been vaccinated, who have been reluctant to get vaccinated or have not had the opportunity, I believe we can see light at the end of the tunnel,” Dr. Fauci told NBC. “Where we reach a point where there’s enough of a veil of protection over the community that you see a dramatic diminution, not only in cases, but in hospitalizations and ultimately, of course, in deaths.”
Roughly 51% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, although children under 12 aren’t eligible for the shots just yet.
Dr. Fauci said there is a “reasonable chance” that younger children will be eligible by Christmas.
He said drugmakers and the National Institutes of Health “are working very hard to get data on both the safety, the correct dose, as well as the immunogenicity, namely, the predictability that these vaccines will be effective.”
“We’re collecting that data now,” Dr. Fauci said. “That data ultimately will be presented to the FDA to look at it for the balance between safety and risk benefit ratio for the children.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.