Fauci: COVID-19 vaccine “will probably take a few months”

Anthony FauciAnthony Fauci: Many of the best players in the NBA fear the promotion of vaccines against COVID-19: the White House report says there is no need to make vaccines for teachers for schools to reopen CNN’s John Berman, White House aide in the reopening of schools: MORE, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said Thursday that a vaccine for a variant of the coronavirus strain believed to have originated in South Africa is likely to take “several months.”

“This will probably take a few months,” said Fauci, who asked about the schedule for vaccine development by MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

“We are already working, for example, with the company Moderna. Pfizer does it all on its own, I’m sure. It’s a good company, a great company “, he added. “But what we’re doing is we’re working with them to get a sample of the vaccine that can actually have the protein code that’s the right protein for the South African isolate.”

Fauci added that “there is enough cushioning in the effectiveness of the vaccine that there is still some protection, especially against serious diseases. Therefore, although the vaccine may not be protected from mild to moderate diseases with the isolate South Africa, when looking at the data, strongly suggests that it will do quite well against serious diseases, that is, keep them out of the hospital and prevent them from dying. “

The director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases added that “finally, what we are doing, in anticipation that we may need to do so (we don’t know yet), is to do other targeted versions of the vaccine now. specifically against the isolated South African ”.

Also Thursday, Fauci warned that the extreme weather in some regions of the country would likely lead to delays in vaccination.

“We just have to make up for it as soon as the weather gets up a little bit, the ice melts and we can get the trucks out, people out and put the vaccine in people’s arms,” Fauci told MSNBC Thursday. “We’ll just have to make up for it, that is, do it twice as long as that becomes clear.”