Democracy Dies in Darkness
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`Fauci says U.S. vaccinations to increase in spring as
`Biden administration nears doses goal
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`By
`Reis Thebault
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`Feb. 7, 2021 at 7:14 p.m. EST
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`Public health officials and experts injected some optimism into a dreary cycle of news about the coronavirus pandemic in the
`United States on Sunday, sounding hopeful about the springtime availability of vaccines and doses.
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`Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s highest-ranking infectious-diseases doctor, acknowledged that the demand for vaccinations
`“clearly outstrips supply right now,” but he said he expects the situation to improve in the coming months.
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`“I can tell you that things are going to get better as we get from February into March, into April, because the number of vaccine
`doses that will be available will increase substantially,” Fauci said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
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`He said the stock will come from two sources: the already approved Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which he said are “coming
`off the line as quickly as we can”; and a vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, which submitted the single-shot drug to U.S.
`regulators on Thursday.
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`Full Fauci Interview: Vaccine Shortages 'A Supply-Demand Issue' | Meet The Press | NBFull Fauci Interview: Vaccine Shortages 'A Supply-Demand Issue' | Meet The Press | NB……
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`Fauci’s forecast comes as the United States vaccinates more people each day. On Saturday, states administered nearly 2
`million doses, according to Washington Post data. That round of shots increased the country’s daily average to 1.4 million, just
`shy of the 1.5 million-per-day goal President Biden floated on the sixth day of his administration.
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`Biden surprised many, even his own aides, when he said: “I think, with the grace of God, and the goodwill of the neighbor, and
`the creek not rising, as the old saying goes, I think we may be able to get that to 1.5 million a day.”
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`But the country is still in a dark place. Even though the number of new infections has been declining steadily for nearly a
`month, the current average — more than 120,000 cases per day — far outpaces the surges seen in the spring and summer. And
`still, covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, is killing thousands of Americans each day.
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`Virus variants have made matters more dire. Research made public Sunday found that the strain first detected in the United
`Kingdom is spreading rapidly across the United States, doubling in prevalence every 10 days — and even faster in Florida, the
`third most populous state.
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`The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that the variant, known as B.1.1.7, will become dominant in the
`United States by late March.
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`The virus variant’s swift spread has intensified pressure on the effort to vaccinate as many people as possible, as fast as
`possible. One approach that experts in the United States and abroad have suggested is to use all available vaccine supply on
`first doses, giving a wider pool of people at least partial protection and delaying the second dose, which boosts the vaccines’
`effectiveness.
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`Michael Osterholm, one of Biden’s coronavirus advisers, has said the strategy deserves further consideration. But on Sunday
`morning, Fauci said that there’s no time to study it and that the country is better off sticking to the two-dose rollout that was
`the subject of clinical trials.
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`“It’s a reasonable idea,” Fauci said. “I’m not putting the idea down. But it’s very impractical to do, it really is.”
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`On Twitter, Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, echoed Fauci’s optimism about the
`country’s increasing supply of vaccines, but said leaders may then face another problem: more doses than people willing to
`receive them.
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`“I think it’s possible that by April, supply could outstrip demand,” Gottlieb said. “We should start to focus now on that
`challenge.”
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`Annie Gowen and Jacqueline Dupree contributed to this report.
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