Dr. Fauci Says a 'Safe and Effective' Vaccine is Coming

Ever since the first cases of COVID-19 were identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019, researchers have been scrambling to develop an effective vaccine. And, according to the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, by the end of the year we should know whether or not a vaccine will be ready for distribution by early 2021. Read on, and to get through this pandemic at your healthiest, don't miss these Sure Signs You've Already Had Coronavirus.

In a new interview with UK's The Times, Fauci revealed that the trials currently underway in the United States will rear results by November, and we should have a good idea of their safety and efficacy.

"The way the pace of the enrollment is going on and the level of the infections that are going on in the United States, it is likely that we'll get an answer by the end of the year," he explained. "I would say a safe bet is at least knowing that you have a safe and effective vaccine by November, December."

There are currently three vaccines lined up for testing under the White House's "Operation Warp Speed" plan, which intends to deliver 300 doses by January. "It is conceivable that we would get an answer before that," he added.

He also revealed that he would be opposed to any efforts to rush a vaccine to market, especially for political purposes, citing safety reasons. "I would not be satisfied until a vaccine was proven to be safe and effective, before it was actually approved for general use," he confirmed.

As for when the pandemic will be over, Dr. Fauci isn't sure. In a separate interview on the Colors podcast on Friday, he explained there are too many moving parts to make an accurate prediction.

"It's something that is so difficult to predict because it—really much of it— depends on what we ourselves are doing in the sense of the public health measures necessary to contain the outbreak," he said. "Now, one of the problems is that as we've seen the most effective way to do that is to essentially shut down the problem with shutting down and staying shut down for a prolonged period of time, is that that adds to extraordinary economic instability….Now, if we, as a global community, pull together and try to reopen for those that have essentially shut down in a prudent and careful manner that doesn't allow resurgences and rebounds of cases, then we could actually do fairly well, or at least much better than the projections are now."

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