The majority of Americans, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) said on Wednesday, are vulnerable to contracting the novel coronavirus.
During a Senate Health, Education, Welfare, and Retirement Committee hearing, Dr. Robert Redfield testified when he announced that half of the US population was at risk of becoming sick with the potentially deadly illness.
‘In the first round of study, the preliminary findings indicate that a majority of our country, more than 90 percent of the population, remains susceptible,’ said Redfield.
Many Americans are still exposed to this infection.
Redfield and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading authority on infectious diseases, testified later in the meeting that they plan a vaccine to be readily available to the public by spring 2021.
Redfield said the CDC is already undertaking a report after the hearing to assess how many Americans have been ill with coronavirus.
He said infection rates of one as high as 24 percent and another as low as less than one percent ranged from state-to-state
‘Preliminary studies tend to suggest that most Americans have not been afflicted with the virus and are still prone to transmission, extreme disease and death,’ said Redfield.
‘It ranges from states in multiple geographical sections … We will get it finalized and hopefully released in the next week or so.’
The findings appear to combat the view of President Donald Trump that the US could curb the herd immunity pandemic, which will need up to 85 percent of the population to have antibodies to the virus.
This is close to an estimate provided by Redfield to reporters at a June press conference in which he announced that the CDC claimed that the virus killed 10 times more people than the official count in the United States.
There were 2.3 million confirmed cases at the time, with a 10-fold rise equivalent to 20 million cases, nearly six percent of the US population.
Redfield testified later in the hearing that he estimated that by late March or early April, 700 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine would be available.
In order to inoculate 350 million individuals, there will be adequate doses.
‘I think it would take us April, May, June, you know, maybe July, to vaccinate the American public fully,’ he said.
He also expects 700 million doses to be available by April 2021, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
He continued that if a vaccine is accepted before the end of the year, only around 50 million doses will be available in December, so the vaccine will not be obtained by a significant proportion of the population in 2020.
Fauci said that those prioritized are likely to be health care providers and likely to be disadvantaged in pre-existing circumstances.
According to the World Health Organisation, there are more than 170 applicants for coronavirus vaccines in different phases of production across the globe.
In order to show that the jabs are both safe and reliable, at least 10 are now in large-scale clinical trials in the US and around the world.
Fauci said during his opening speech that he expects findings that will demonstrate the effectiveness of every vaccine by November or December.
‘We firmly hope that if we have a mix of commitment along with a vaccine to public health programs… we will be able to turn around this horrible pandemic we have witnessed,’ he added.
There have been reports lately that a vaccine will be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before adequate evidence is available for analysis due to pressure from the Trump administration.
FDA Commissioner Hahn said that only if FDA scientists find it safe and successful would a vaccine be approved.
‘I am going to fight for science. I’m trying to fight for the agency’s reputation,’ Hahn said.
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