Coronavirus Vaccine Could Be Available By January, Says Anthony Fauci

A vaccine that can protect people from COVID-19 could be widely available by January if “things fall in the right place,” revealed Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The infectious disease expert said on Thursday that the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, which is currently at Phase 1 trial, would be subjected to Phase II trial to test if it would be safe and effective for human use.

Fauci said that if the coronavirus vaccine passes the Phase 1 trial, the U.S. administration would not wait for the results of the Phase II trial to mass-produce the vaccine. “You don’t wait until you get an answer to start manufacturing,” said Fauci. “You, at risk, proactively start making it assuming it’s going to work and if it does then you can scale up,” he added.

Fauci explained that by ramping up the production of the vaccine after the Phase I trial, the government will be able to quickly roll it out to the general public once the results from the Phase II trial turn out positive. The U.S. government reportedly wants supplies to be in place as soon as possible so the vaccine will be readily available to the public when the human trial turns out to be successful.

While it usually takes 12 to 18 months to develop a vaccine, Fauci explained that his January 2021 timeline isn’t totally unfeasible. He explained that when he first started giving that timeline in January this year, the coronavirus outbreak was just starting to spread across the globe. That means the January 2021 timeline will be 12 months away from his “12 to 18” months declaration and hence is “aspirational.”

In a recent speech, Donald Trump revealed that the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine had made a lot of progress in recent months. However, he said he would not wait for the coronavirus vaccine to be available before he orders the reopening of restaurants and stadiums in the U.S.

As of May 1, there have been 1,040,488 cases of COVID-19 in the country. 60,999 of which have already died from the disease.