Dr. Fauci predicts drugmakers will likely produce 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021
- Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview with Reuters that drugmakers will likely have "tens of million of doses" of a COVID-19 vaccine by early 2021.
- By the end of next year, he said there will be "hundreds of millions and likely a billion doses."
- Fauci, the top infectious disease official, warned that nothing is certain.
- "I'm cautiously optimistic, though you can never guarantee things with a vaccine," Fauci commented.
Drugmakers will likely have produced a billion doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of next year, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States' top infectious disease official, said Wednesday.
"We are likely going to have maybe tens of million of doses in the early part of [next] year. But as we get into 2021, the manufacturers tell us that they will have hundreds of millions and likely a billion doses by the end of 2021," Fauci said in an interview with Reuters.
That, of course, depends on an effective vaccine actually being developed and approved. "I'm cautiously optimistic, though you can never guarantee things with a vaccine," Fauci commented.
Before then, however, there will be another cycle of infection.
"I hope and feel it's possible that by the time we get through 2021 and go around for another cycle, that we'll have this under control," Fauci said. "Do I think we're going to have a much, much better control one full year from this winter? I think so."
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