With tens of millions of doses being produced at the start of next year
Fauchi: The Corona vaccine will be more than 70% effective
Anthony Fauci: Corona has proven to us that the size of the United States is one of our weaknesses. Archive
In an interview with "Der Spiegel" magazine, President Donald Trump's advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, discussed the mistakes made in trying to contain the spread of "Covid-19", and his cautious optimism that a vaccine will be available soon. Here are excerpts from the interview:
You once said about yourself: “You have a reputation for speaking the truth at all times, not painting things.” Can we hope to get samples of unspoken facts ... today?
Of course .. I will always tell you the truth, at least to the extent that I think it is correct.
In 2017, the Trump administration advised to increase its preparedness for the pandemic. Have you seen a pandemic like this coming, any scenario like this with global closures, hospital chaos, and somewhat violent social disruption?
Well, the answer is that I anticipated a new infectious disease outbreak, because we have a lot of it. During my tenure as director of the Infectious Diseases Institute, which is 36 years now, I have seen HIV, pandemic influenza, Ebola, and Zika. And I always knew that we would have the inevitable constant challenge of future disease outbreaks.
What was your worst nightmare like, at the time?
- 30 years ago, I said my worst fear was the emergence of a completely new infection, it could potentially jump from an animal host to a human, and this is what happened. It (the current virus) is transmitted through the respiratory system, with high efficiency from person to person, and has a high degree of impact and mortality, at least in some groups of the population. It's the worst thing we've seen in 102 years, since 1918.
As an AIDS researcher, do you think Coronavirus is worse than HIV?
HIV is completely different. The reason is that the Corona virus is unique, because it has spread in the world, and everyone is vulnerable. And in seven or eight months, the virus paralyzed the world. I mean, the economy was ruined!
With 5.5 million cases and more than 170,000 deaths, the United States is the worst-affected country in the world ... In your opinion, what are the crucial causes for bad things in the United States?
The United States is a very large, very diverse country. This is one of our strengths, but with the outbreak it turned out to be one of our weaknesses. We had different waves of infection, and the cases did not return to a low baseline, as is the case in Germany or Italy. Our baseline remained at about 20,000 cases per day. We have carefully laid out guidelines for unlocking the economy again. Some states have listened to the guidelines and have performed reasonably well. But others have jumped over the directives we issued, and in other states, citizens have gone ahead, and did whatever they wanted to do.
When is the vaccine available to the general public?
Since many companies have already started producing their vaccine, tens of millions of doses are supposed to be available, around the beginning of 2021. And by the end of 2021, there should be hundreds of millions, maybe even a billion. This is not enough for everyone in the world, but it is enough to vaccinate most of the people who need it.
You said that a vaccine with an efficacy of between 50 and 60% would be acceptable. There is also the possibility that the vaccine will not be able to prevent infection .. Does this mean that the epidemic will not really end?
I do not think this will happen. We strive for an efficacy of over 70%, and this is not good, like the measles vaccine, which is 97 to 98% effective.
• 30 years ago, I said that my worst fear was the emergence of a completely new infection, it could hop from an animal host to a human, and this is what happened.