While the nation sees surges in the number of coronavirus cases, Dr. Anthony Fauci is cautiously optimistic there will be a vaccine developed by the beginning of next year.
Testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Tuesday, Fauci revealed while there is no guarantee there will be a safe and effective vaccine, he is confident there will be one developed in the near future.
“Hopefully there will be doses available by the beginning of next year,” Fauci said. “These are things that we feel aspirationally hopeful about and we will continue to pursue this.”
Check out his comments below:
Dr. Anthony Fauci says there is "no guarantee" that "we will have a safe and effective vaccine." He is "aspirationally hopeful" that doses will be available by the beginning of 2021 https://t.co/vAOmsWpejw pic.twitter.com/zgLJSVDiW1
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 30, 2020
Fauci previously spoke to the issue of a vaccine during an appearance on CNN on Sunday, as IJR previously reported.
He argued if Americans refuse the coronavirus vaccine once it is made available, the nation will not be able to achieve “herd immunity.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), herd immunity is “a situation in which a sufficient proportion of a population is immune to an infectious disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness) to make its spread from person to person unlikely.”
A third of Americans said they will not get a coronavirus vaccine, according to a CNN poll.
Fauci expressed his concern about the “disturbing” surge of coronavirus cases across the nation during the “Oversight of the Trump Administration’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic” hearing on June 23, as IJR previously reported.
As of Monday, both California and Texas reported a record number of spikes in new coronavirus infections.
Statewide positive tests rose by at least 7,418 to nearly 223,000 in California.
Infections in Texas rose by 6,545 Monday to nearly 160,000.
With the sharp increases in the number of coronavirus infections, a CDC official suggested the nation has “way too much virus” to contain the spread.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the United States has more than 2.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 129,000 deaths.