Vaccine won’t speed return to normal, Fauci warns
Public officials will need to determine who receives the first coronavirus vaccines once they become available, Dr. Anthony Fauci told a virtual gathering of the nonprofit Berkeley Forum.
A “good vaccine” might mean a gradual return to a sense of normalcy toward the end of next year, Fauci said Thursday evening. At the same time, the highly regarded director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases cautioned that such a return will not be as easy as “turning a light switch on and off.” A coronavirus vaccine will not be 99% effective, and the majority of people likely will not be vaccinated, he said.
“There are a number of people that don’t get vaccinated because they don’t have the time, but they don’t fully appreciate the importance and the seriousness of it,” Fauci said Thursday.
“There are a number of people that don’t get vaccinated ... but they don’t fully appreciate ... the seriousness of it.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
“If you can make it easier for them to get vaccinated, you may win over at least a segment of the people who, for one reason or another, do not want to get vaccinated.”
As for who will be at the head of the line to receive any approved vaccines, Fauci told the forum that a committee of medical and public health experts will advise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since it’s likely that sufficient doses will not be available right away.
The panel, which is called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, will also work with Black and other minority groups to fight skepticism and misinformation about the vaccine.
The reason, Fauci said, is that the coronavirus is “shining a very bright light” on health care inequities that are causing a disproportionate amount of minority populations to die from COVID19.
Minority groups are already at higher risks of diabetes, obesity, and heart and lung disease that make them more vulnerable to the virus, Fauci said Thursday. Their vulnerability is compounded by the nature of their jobs, many of which do not allow them to work from home.
“I hope that the terrible experience that we’re going through now galvanizes and energizes us to make a decadeslong commitment to doing things about these social determinants of health,” Fauci told the online forum. “But they’re not reversible overnight. They’re reversible over a long period of time, and that takes a societal commitment.”
The Berkeley Forum is an undergraduate studentrun organization at UC Berkeley that hosts talks, panels and debates led by experts on timely and topical issues. All events are hosted virtually due to the pandemic.