Dr. Anthony Fauci is offering a new update on vaccine availability for the coronavirus revealing a vaccine could be ready by the end of the year for January.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director appeared on “The Today Show” on Thursday where he spoke with Savannah Guthrie about the potential breakthrough drug currently undergoing a study conducted by the NIH.
Fauci noted that a January roll-out of a vaccine is not far off from his initial 18-month projection to develop one. He also said he believes it is “doable if things fall in the right place.”
“I was saying in January and February that it would be a year to 18 months, so January is a year,” he said. “So it isn’t that much from what I had originally said.”
During the interview, Fauci also discussed the “placebo-controlled, randomized trial” of the drug, Remdesivir. He noted that the results were “clearly positive” but also shared more details and variables about the clinical study.
“Although the results were positive from a significant, statistical standpoint, they were modest,” Fauci said. “The improvement was 31% better chance of recovering and getting out of the hospital.”
See Fauci’s remarks below:
Watch @savannahguthrie’s full interview with Dr. Anthony Facui about the potential breakthrough antiviral drug to treat coronavirus, and whether he thinks states are opening up too soon. pic.twitter.com/ihhFfgQx5n
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 30, 2020
He went on to explain why the modest improvement signals a breakthrough. Fauci noted how the Remdesivir study could be the foundation for the creation of better drugs or combination drugs to effectively combat the virus in the future.
“That’s important but its the first step in what we project will be better and better drugs coming along,” Fauci explained, “Either alone or in combination with drugs of this type — drugs addressing other targets of the virus.”
The global health expert reiterated that the drug is not a quick fix but rather a step in the right direction.
“So its good news but I was very serious when I said, ‘This is not the total answer, by any means, but it’s a very important first step.'”
Fauci was asked about the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) preparing to grant emergency use for the drug. He went on to share details about the next steps that will be taken in approving the manufacturing of the drug.
He later said, “We’re in the early phases of a trial phase one,” adding that in the next phase, if the drug works, “we’re going to start ramping up production with the companies involved and you do that at risk, in other words you don’t wait until you get an answer before you start manufacturing, you at risk, proactively, start making it, assuming it’s going to work. And if it does, then you can scale up and hopefully get to that timeline.”
As of Thursday morning, there are more than 1,067,000 positive coronavirus cases in the United States.
