From the Associated Press.
Dr. Anthony Fauci says U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to administer 100 million shots of the coronavirus vaccine within the first 100 days of his administration is “a realistic goal.”
The top U.S. infectious disease expert told ABC’s “This Week,” “we can do 1 million people per day. You know we’ve done massive vaccination programs…in our history. There’s no reason why we can’t do it right now.”
That optimism comes as the race to vaccinate millions of Americans is off to a slower, messier start than public health officials and leaders of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed had expected.
Fauci acknowledges “there have been a couple of glitches, that’s understandable.” He says the pace is picking up but “we are not where we want to be.”
As the U.S. COVID-19 death toll tops 350,000, Fauci is taking issue with President Donald Trump’s claim on Twitter on Sunday that the number of U.S. cases and deaths is “far exaggerated” because of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “ridiculous” methodology.
Fauci says “the deaths are real deaths.” He says hospitals are running out of bed and medical workers are exhausted under the strain of caring for the sick.
