New COVID-19 Vaccine Could Be Ready For Approval Within Weeks, Fauci Says

By Neil P. First Posted: Jan 19, 2021 07:29 AM EST

Members Of Coronavirus Task Force Hold A Briefing At The White House

(Photo : Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on November 19, 2020 in Washington, DC. The White House held its first Coronavirus Task Force briefing in months as cases of COVID-19 are surging across the country ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that a new COVID-19 vaccine could be ready in the U.S. within weeks if it gets approval from the U.S. FDA.

The fast roll-out and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the country are very important to achieve herd immunity.

This will help limit virus transmission and reduce the number of infections and deaths in the country. At present, two vaccines currently have emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration.

According to Business Insider, the country's leading disease and infectious expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that a new COVID-19 vaccine could be ready for use in the U.S. within weeks once it gets approval from the FDA.

New COVID-19 vaccine could be ready within weeks

Dr. Fauci predicted that the drugmakers AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson will submit the results of their clinical trial data to the agency as soon as this week and the next following weeks.

It appears that the COVID-19 vaccine of Johnson & Johnson's may appear to seek first for approval rather than AstraZeneca.

Moreover, the human clinical trial data of AstraZeneca is not expected to be ready until March because it is still recruiting participants.

Data for the last stage of the human clinical trial is very important because this will give a glimpse of how safe and effective the vaccine is in the wider number of participants.

Vaccine Developers Could Seek Approval By February

Moncef Slaoui, the outgoing chief advisor to President Donald Trump's vaccine initiative known as Operation Warp Speed, said last month that vaccine developers AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson could seek FDA emergency use authorization by the end of February.

If their vaccines will be granted the authorization on the predicted date, they can start to roll-out and distribute COVID-19 vaccines across the country in April.

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson targets to roll out its vaccine this March, which means that the vaccine might apply for authorization anytime soon.

Moreover, the vaccines of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson are administered differently. AstraZeneca's vaccine is just like Pfizer's and Moderna's which are given twice. On the other hand, Johnson and Johnson's vaccine is only given once.

At present, the U.S. FDA has granted emergency use authorization to Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, both vaccines have distributed 12 million doses across the country.

100 Million Vaccine Doses in the First 100 Days

Dr. Anthony Fauci is set to become the chief science advisor of President-elect Joe Biden. He said that the new administration will use whatever mechanisms they can to reach Biden's goal of 100 million vaccine doses in the first 100 days of his office.

While waiting for other vaccines, Dr. Fauci recommended that Americans must double down on public-health measures most especially with the presence of the new variant which is more contagious.

"Be very compulsive, as the president-elect says, at least for the first 100 days and maybe more, everybody wears a mask, keep the distance, avoid congregate settings."