About two million people have received their first COVID-19 vaccine, which is far from the goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of the year.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious diseases expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN on Tuesday (Dec. 29) that the administration of vaccines in the country is “certainly not at the numbers that we wanted to be at the end of December.”
As of 9 a.m. on Monday (Dec. 28), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID Data Tracker showed that 2.13 million people had received their first dose of the vaccine.
“Even if you undercount, two million as an undercount, how much undercount could it be,” Fauci said. “So, we are below where we want to be.”
Operation Warp Speed (OWS) — a U.S. private-public partnership tasked with overseeing vaccine development and distribution — said there were some obstacles that delayed the vaccination’s release. Fauci applauded Army Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of OWS, for publicly announcing the setbacks.
“I believe that as we get into January, we are going to see an increase in the momentum,” Fauci told CNN. He added that administering the vaccine to “priority people” is important so the U.S. can start vaccinating the general population.
Fauci said the real turning point for the pandemic will come when the world can say “anybody and everybody who wants to be vaccinated can be vaccinated.”
California’s Los Angeles County, a virus hotspot, teamed up with Healthvana to offer people digital proof of having been vaccinated. Patients can store the electronic record in an Apple or Google digital wallet.
President-elect Joe Biden is reportedly considering invoking the Defense Protection Act (DPA) to escalate vaccine production. Usually a wartime law, the DPA empowers the president to direct the private sector to prioritize manufacturing.
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