Americans are seeking more clarity when it comes to a COVID-19 vaccine, and public health experts are trying to build confidence in the American public.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, is weighing in on the possibility of someone infecting others with COVID-19 after receiving the coronavirus vaccine.
During Monday’s interview on CNN “New Day,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was asked if someone who gets the COVID-19 vaccine and is symptomless if they could still be infectious.
“Well, that’s possible,” Fauci said, adding, “We’re going to know the answer to that as we follow people out longer.”
He added that that idea is “certainly conceivable” because “the prime endpoint of it…was clinically recognizable disease.”
“We will ultimately find out if it prevents clinically recognizable disease but there’s still some virus in a person’s nasal fairings,” he continued. “That is conceivable, maybe likely.”
He noted that it could happen that even if there is virus in a person’s nasal fairings, “the immune system boost that you get from the vaccine might bring the level of virus in the nasal fairings so low that even though you may be infected it might be much more difficult for you to transmit that infection to someone else.”
Finding out the answer to that is part of the follow-up of the vaccine trial, Fauci said.
Watch Fauci’s interview below:
The Covid-19 vaccine will not show an impact on mortality rate immediately, Dr. Anthony Fauci says.
— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) December 7, 2020
“[It’s] likely you’re not going to see a measurable diminution for at least several weeks, if not longer. But it will come, I guarantee you.” pic.twitter.com/ofotpjqHyb
Additionally, during the CNN interview, Fauci shared when he believes that the impact of people getting the COVID-19 vaccine on the mortality rate in the U.S.
After noting it will not “immediately” show, Fauci said it is “likely you’re not going to see a measurable diminution for at least several weeks, if not longer. But it will come, I’ll guarantee you.”
President-elect Joe Biden recently joined some former presidents who have said that they would get the COVID-19 vaccine once made available in an effort to boost the confidence of the American people.
“When Dr. Fauci says we have a vaccine that is safe, that’s the moment in which I will stand before the public,” Biden said during a CNN interview on Dec. 3.
Biden, who will be the oldest president when he is inaugurated in January of 2021, said he would “be happy” to follow what other former presidents have said they would do.
President-elect Joe Biden says he'd "be happy" to join former Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton in getting a Covid vaccine in public to prove it's safe. "When Dr. Fauci says we have a vaccine that is safe, that's the moment in which I will stand before the public and say that" pic.twitter.com/JATvDIMP0n
— CNN (@CNN) December 4, 2020
Former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush have said that they would get the COVID-19 vaccine in public once deemed safe to do so.
“I will be taking it. I may end up taking it on TV or having it filmed, just so that people know that I trust this science,” Obama said during a SiriusXM “The Joe Madison Show” interview. “What I don’t trust is getting COVID.”
Bush’s chief of staff Freddy Ford told CNN, “First, the vaccines need to be deemed safe and administered to the priority populations. Then, President Bush will get in line for his, and will gladly do so on camera.”
Additionally, Clinton’s press secretary told CNN, “President Clinton will definitely take a vaccine as soon as available to him, based on the priorities determined by public health officials. And he will do it in a public setting if it will help urge all Americans to do the same.”