The US could reach effective herd immunity by this coming May, a senior official leading the government’s efforts to speed up development of coronavirus vaccines said Sunday.
Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief advisor to ‘Operation Warp Speed’, told CNN Sunday that if the coronavirus vaccines now being tested receive approval from the Centers for Disease Control next month, the US will likely be on track to achieve effective herd immunity by May 2021.
A slew of coronavirus vaccines developed in the US, including vaccines created by Pfizer and Moderna, are set to go up for approval by the Center for Disease Control and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice on December 10th.
Dr. Slaoui said that if the CDC committee approves the vaccines, the US will be able to distribute up to 20 million doses a month starting in December.
Given the 90-95% effectiveness reported in early testing of the coronavirus vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna, that would put the US in position to have some 70% of the population exposed to the coronavirus – either from natural infection or by way of vaccine – by May.
Normally, with the level of efficacy we have – 95% – then 70% or so of the population being immunized would allow true herd immunity to take place,” Slaoui said. “That is likely to happen somewhere in the month of May, something like that, based on our plans.”
Once that is achieved, Dr. Slaoui continued, “normal life” can resume.
“In my wildest dream I was saying ‘Maybe the vaccine will be 80 to 90% efficacious. Now we’re at 90-95%. This is exhilarating,” Dr. Slaoui told Fox News.
“This vaccine is highly, highly effective.”
Source: David Rosenber – Arutz Sheva