On Friday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, US top infectious disease expert, shared the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use and his biggest fear of the Covid-19 vaccine.
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Along with other top health officials, Dr. Fauci has been working for months to fast-track the vaccine and get doses out to the Americans before the year ends. And on Friday, the FDA cleared the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use, permitting FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service to start preparing the initial 2.9 million doses of vaccine for delivery to frontline healthcare workers. The shots are expected to reach communities across the country around Monday morning.
Fauci said he has no doubts about the vaccine distribution plan. The public-private partnership to fast-track the vaccine delivery, Operation Warp Speed, had a plan in place to ensure the smooth delivery of the first vaccine doses to states, he said. Fauci added, "But all the planning the military has done to ensure the distribution process runs smoothly won't matter if people aren't willing to take the vaccine."
Fauci said, "My primary biggest fear is that a substantial proportion of the people will be hesitant to get vaccinated. I think there are going to be many people who don't want to get vaccinated right away. But once you get, you know, tens of millions of people vaccinated, it looks like it's working and it's safe. I think we'll win over a large proportion of the rest of the population, who might have some hesitancy about getting vaccinated."
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Coronavirus task force members have been attending to vaccine hesitancy for months. In summer, Fauci even encouraged the nation's governors to initiate dialogue publicly about the vaccine, the companies who were working on it, and the iron-clad process one would have to go through to get approval from the FDA.
Four months later, though, Fauci says he's still worried that Americans will not show up to get immunized-even healthcare workers who are set to receive the first batch of doses next week. And there's evidence to support that fear. One hospital in Essex County, Massachusetts, battling high hospitalization and community infection rates, sent a survey to staff last week asking who would be willing to take the vaccine. According to one administrator from that hospital, about a third of those surveyed said they were comfortable getting immunized.
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Fauci continued, "That's the reason why we've got to make sure we get the health care workers the correct information. What is the reason that they're hesitant? Do they think it went too fast? It was certainly the fastest we've ever approved the vaccine. But the speed is related to the extraordinary scientific advances in platform technology from vaccines that allowed us to do things in months that would have formerly taken several years. If you give them that information and explain it clearly to them, I think they will get vaccinated. If it doesn't, then I think we're going to be in a little bit of trouble."
According to Fauci, the problem is that if heaps of healthcare workers choose not to take the vaccine, then the rest of the population could be hesitant to get immunized. And that would only prolong the time it would take for the country to get back on track.
