United States' top infectious diseases expert and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed his skepticism about Russia claiming their COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective, even calling the vaccine 'bogus'.
According to Fauci, he is not calling the vaccine itself bogus since it does exist. He clarified that what is bogus is Russian President Vladimir Putin claiming that it is effective and safe to use. Fauci gave the statement during a guesting on George Washington University's 'Healthy You: Surviving a Pandemic' podcast.
Fauci also stated that simply having a vaccine is different from having a vaccine that has proven effective in trials. He also stated that the trials should be well-designed, placebo-controlled, and randomized before anyone can say that the vaccine is already effective and safe to administer.
He also added that based on information that he has gathered, the Russians lack intensive study on their vaccine and the trials were not correctly designed.
Meanwhile, Newsweek reported that upon reaching out to Putin's office for any comment, no response has been received yet.
In addition, Fauci announced that at the moment, the US has six vaccine projects that are being done. He also emphasized that none of the vaccines are already approved since those are yet to be proven safe and effective. He also noted that unless the vaccine is proven effective no one can claim that they already have a vaccine just yet.
On top of this, the infectious diseases experts also stated that at least two out of the six vaccines have already entered the third phase of clinical trials by the end of July. He further explained that the first vaccine to enter Phase 3 of trials is a trial involving 30,000 people, while the second one looks into including 60,000 volunteers. He also clued in on a possible third vaccine that is set to enter Phase 3.
Fauci has also predicted that a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19 may be ready in the US early in January or by the end of December.
On the other hand, federal health officials have announced last week that the COVID-19 vaccine will be given for free to all Americans. However, as the vaccine seems to be finally within reach, many Americans have expressed that they will not be getting the vaccine even when it is available.
In a report by CNN, a recent poll has revealed that only 56% of Americans are willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 even if the vaccine becomes widely available. The number of those who do not want to get the vaccine has grown from 33% to more than 40%.
In line with this, Fauci stated that the reason many people do not want to get vaccinated is because of widespread disinformation. He also noted that these people should be educated more about the benefits of vaccines instead of being criticized.
It can be recalled that Fauci has previously stated that the US may fail to achieve 'herd immunity' due to the high percentage of those who refuse to get the vaccine.
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