COVID-19 Vaccinations Could Start as Early as November, Fauci Says

By Mary Anne R. First Posted: Sep 25, 2020 10:36 PM EDT

The nation's leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said that COVID-19 vaccinations could start as early as November.

Fauci's comments came after the United States passed seven million confirmed cases of COVID-19. According to Johns Hopkins University data, over 203,000 people have already died from the coronavirus.

"By the time you get enough people vaccinated so that you can feel you've had an impact enough on the outbreak, so that you can start thinking about maybe getting a little bit more towards normality, that very likely, as I and others have said, will be maybe the third quarter or so of 2021. Maybe even into the fourth quarter," Fauci said in a report.

Fauci noted that with the different vaccines being developed, the U.S. could potentially have 700 million doses by April 2021. However, the availability of vaccines is not the only factor being considered.

He said in American society, it is likely that many people would not want to get the vaccine right away and would wait to see what happens with the first million people.

It took the U.S. only 25 days to record another one million cases after making the six millionth on Aug. 31.

According to John Hopkins, only three other countries in the world have reported over one million COVID-19 cases.India has more than 5.8 million cases, followed by Brazil with more than 4.6 million and Russia with more than 1.1 million.

Meanwhile, California became the first state to surpass 800,000 infections. Texas followed with about 745,500. Florida also came up with some 695,000 cases.

The rate of new cases nationally increased to nine percent from last week, with a seven-day average of more than 43,000 cases nationwide.

Fauci said the current level of spread could be a challenge during fall and winter. He noted that people do not want to enter into the fall and winter with a community spread at that level.

He added that it would be a difficult situation that could really be challenging if community spread is still prevalent in the fall and winter.

One of the challenges could include a rise of COVID-19 cases across the country as more fronts open up, including the many schools and colleges nationwide that have opened classes to students.

"And as the weather gets cooler, more gatherings will move inside, where the virus can spread more easily. You're going to have to do a lot of things indoors out of necessity of the temperature," Fauci added.

With that being the case, Fauci said people would tend not to follow the guidelines such as wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and avoiding crowds.

"That we may see another surge," he noted.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said this week that more than 90 percent of the population is still susceptible to COVID-19 infections.

There is also a possible complicated flu season that could pile on top of the pandemic and quickly overwhelm the healthcare system.

Redfield warned that it could be a historically difficult fall and winter.