The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told states to be ready to distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 1, but Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday said that it is not likely the vaccine will be ready to roll out before November or December, but when it is, he would not hesitate to get the shot.
"It is conceivable that you could have it by October, though I don't think that is likely," Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said on CNN. "Most of us project that that's going to be by November and December, by the end of this year."
Fauci said he also would not hesitate to have the vaccine if the data is proven safe.
"I would assume, and I'm pretty sure that that's going to be the case, that a vaccine would not be approved for the American public unless it was both indeed safe and effective," he said. "If that's the case, I would not hesitate for a moment."
Meanwhile, Fauci said he does not think that politics are influencing the timeline for a vaccine.
"The FDA has been very explicit that they are going to make a decision based on the data as it comes in," said Fauci. "These trials have these independent data and safety monitoring boards that intermittently look at the data, and they are the ones that are independent individuals...I think that we can have some confidence and have faith in what the FDA is saying. They are saying very explicitly that they are going to be making the decision based on the scientific data, and we hope that that's going to be the case."
He added that the FDA and CDC are both "data-driven organizations" and people can feel confident that the information will be examined appropriately.
"Remember, there are outside groups that are going to be involved in this, and I think people need to understand that," he said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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