As 2020 comes to a close, the United States has delivered over 2.7 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Americans. However, that number is far short of the government’s goal of 20 million vaccinations by the end of the year.
During an appearance on NBC’s “Today,” Fauci said, “We would have liked to have seen it run smoothly and have 20 million doses into people today by the end of the 2020, which was the projection.”
“Obviously, it didn’t happen, and that’s disappointing,” he added.
Watch the video below:
“The good news is that it does not appear to be more virulent.”
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 31, 2020
Watch @craigmelvin’s full interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci on the dangerous new coronavirus strain now in the United States, and what it will take to fix the slow start to the vaccine push. pic.twitter.com/Z8yK7IpJCt
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2,794,588 Americans have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
However, health officials have expressed their disappointment with the pace of the vaccinations compared to their goal of 20 million.
Fauci expressed optimism that the pace of vaccinations will pick up in the early weeks of 2021. However, he said state and local governments need more resources and assistance to be able to speed up the pace.
“There really has to be a lot more effort in the sense of resources for the locals, namely, the states, the cities, the counties, the places where the vaccine is actually going into the arms of individuals.”
Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir told CNN‘s Jake Tapper on Wednesday that “we need to be doing a better job” with the vaccine rollout.
Giroir predicted that there would be 30 million vaccine doses delivered in January and 50 million in February.