Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the United States’ coronavirus vaccine rollout has been “disappointing” in a Thursday interview.
“We would have liked to have seen it run smoothly and have 20 million doses into people today by the end of 2020, which was the projection. Obviously, it didn’t happen, and that’s disappointing,” Fauci told “Today.” That number of 20 million vaccinations was the original goal set by the Trump administration when the first coronavirus vaccines were on the verge of approval.
Dr. Fauci says slow Covid vaccine rollout has been ‘disappointing’ https://t.co/CC7s1ZiLa0
— CNBC (@CNBC) December 31, 2020
Only about 2.8 million Americans have received their first vaccine dose as of Thursday, according to The Hill. Fauci said local and state governments will need more support and resources for vaccinations to speed up in January 2021. (RELATED: Dr. Paul Offit Calls For ‘Mass Vaccination Events’ To Speed Up Distribution)
“There really has to be a lot more effort in the sense of resources for the locals, namely, the states, the cities, the counties, the places where the vaccine is actually going into the arms of individuals,” the White House adviser said. (Biden Slams Trump Administration, Says Vaccine Roll-Out Is ‘Falling Behind’)
The initial plan from the Trump administration and Operation Warp Speed was to hold back about half of available vaccine doses to be used as second shots in the two-dose regimen required by the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Even with that plan still in place, authorities were expected to get much closer to the goal of 20 million vaccinations than has happened.