Anthony Fauci ‘cautiously optimistic’ about Covid-19 vaccine

The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci heads, is participating in five of the many projects underway in the United States as part of Operation Warp Speed, the federally supported effort to find a vaccine.

Anthony Fauci, the top US epidemiologist, told lawmakers Friday he is “cautiously optimistic” that a vaccine for Covid-19 will be available by the end of the year.

One of these candidate vaccines, being developed by Moderna, went into Phase 3 clinical trial past Monday. (AP)

“There’s never a guarantee that you’re going to get a safe and effective vaccine, but from everything we’ve seen now in the animal data, as well as the early human data, we feel cautiously optimistic that we will have a vaccine by the end of this year and as we go into 2021,” Fauci said at a congressional hearing.

The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci heads, is participating in five of the many projects underway in the United States as part of Operation Warp Speed, the federally supported effort to find a vaccine.

One of these candidate vaccines, being developed by Moderna, went into Phase 3 clinical trial past Monday.

“I believe, ultimately, over a period of time in 2021, if we have it, and I think we will have a safe and effective vaccine, that Americans will be able to get it,” Fauci went on to say.

Asked about its distribution he said, “I don’t think that they will have everybody getting it immediately in the beginning. It probably will be phased in.”