Dr. Fauci said up to 90% of population needs to get vaccinated for herd immunity against virus

• Dr. Anthony Fauci clarified his "guesstimate" and said that between 70 to 85% of the population should be vaccinated to reach herd immunity against the coronavirus.
• "We all have to be honest and humble, nobody really knows for sure, but I think 70-85% for herd immunity for COVID-19 is a reasonable estimate," he said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
• Fauci had previously told The New York Times it could take up to 90% of the US population to get vaccinated to reach herd immunity against the coronavirus. He clarified that the range he states are a "guesstimate," and that the goal was for 70 to 85 percent of the population to be vaccinated.
• This month, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized both Moderna and Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use which have been rolled out across the country.

Dr. Anthony Fauci clarified his "guesstimate" and said that between 70 to 85% of the population should be vaccinated to reach herd immunity against the coronavirus.

"We all have to be honest and humble, nobody really knows for sure, but I think 70-85% for herd immunity for COVID-19 is a reasonable estimate," he said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, adding that herd immunity would require "something a little bit less than the 90%" of the population to be vaccinated.

Fauci had previously said it could take up to 90% of the US population to get vaccinated to reach herd immunity against the coronavirus. Fauci told The New York Times in an interview published Thursday that "when polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent," but "when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, 'I can nudge this up a bit,' so I went to 80, 85."

"We really don't know what the real number is," Fauci added. "I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent. But, I'm not going to say 90 percent."

This estimate given to the New York Times came after Fauci told Vox earlier this month that "you want about 75 to 85 percent of the country to get vaccinated" to reach herd immunity.

When pressed by "State of The Union" host Dana Bash on whether he was basing his recommendations based on "what people could accept," Fauci doubled down that the range was a "guesstimate" and that the goal was for 70 to 85 percent of the population to be vaccinated.

This month, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized both Moderna and Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, and healthcare professionals and frontline workers across the country have been getting vaccinations since the vaccine rollouts.

Although Fauci has pointed out the need for a large portion of the US population to be vaccinated for herd immunity to take place, as Business Insider's Andrea Michelson and Anna Medaris Miller reported, he has said that "you don't want to mandate and try and force anyone to take the vaccine."

"You can mandate for certain groups of people like health workers, but for the general population you cannot," Fauci said in August at George Washington University's virtual event. "It would be unenforceable and not appropriate."

The US continues to see record numbers of coronavirus cases. As of Sunday, the US surpassed 18.7 million confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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