Joe Biden’s selection for the nation’s Surgeon General said Sunday there’s “no reason” to doubt that the current vaccination to protect against the coronavirus won’t be successful against a variant now spreading in England.
In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Dr. Vivek Murthy said the most important thing is that individuals reduce the spread of the virus by following public health advice about facial masks, hand-washing, and social distancing.
“There's no reason to believe the vaccine that has been developed will not be effective against this virus as well,” he said of a variant that has been blamed for a spike in cases in Great Britain.
“The bottom line is if you're at home and you're hearing this news, it does not change what we do in terms of precautions as individuals that can reduce the spread of this virus. It turns out masking, that keeping physical distance, washing our hands, these are still the pillar preventing COVID transmission,” he said.
Murthy said he expects widespread distribution of the vaccine by mid-summer or early fall.
“If everything goes well, that we may see a circumstance whereby late spring, you know, people who are in lower-risk categories can get this vaccine but that would really require everything to go exactly on schedule,” he said.
“I think it's more realistic to assume that it may be closer to mid-summer or early fall when this vaccine makes its way to the general population. So we want to be optimistic but we want to be cautious as well.”
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