Dr. Fauci: Remdesivir Not 'Total Answer' but 'Important First Step'

The antiviral medication remdesivir is not the "total answer" to fighting coronavirus, but it's a "very important first step," and the Food and Drug Administration is likely to approve its use on an emergency basis quickly, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday.

He also pointed out to NBC "Today" anchor Savannah Guthrie that the drug was tested through a "gold standard" method that revealed promising results.  

"It was a placebo-controlled, randomized trial, which I've been talking about for some time now, which is really the gold standard of how you prove something is safe and either works or doesn't work," Fauci said. "The improvement was a 31% better chance of recovering and getting out of the hospital. That's important."

The FDA will likely grant emergency use of remdesivir "really quickly," said Fauci, adding that he spoke with FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn Wednesday and "he's moving along very quickly."

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has confirmed a program to get a vaccine out by January, and Fauci said that he does agree that's "doable."

"We're not in the early phases of a trial phase one," said Fauci. "[You] try and get an answer as to whether it works and is safe and if so we're going to start ramping up production with the companies involved. In other words, you don't wait until you get an answer before you start manufacturing. You, at risk, proactively start making it, assuming it's going to work. And if it does then you can scale up and hopefully get to that timeline."

However, he pointed out that he's been saying since January that a vaccine could roll out in 12-18 months, so the new call "isn't that much [different than] what I had originally said."

Fauci, meanwhile, said he wouldn't say the steps states are making to open make him nervous, so long as they follow the guidelines to gradually open, but he feels "cautiously optimistic" that will happen. 

"You can't just leap over things and get into a situation where you're really tempting a rebound," he said. "That's the thing I get concerned about. I hope they don't do that."

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