American epidemiologist Anthony Fauci says that an anti-vaccine movement could jeopardize immunization efforts in the United States.
In an interview with “CNN”, Fauci said that he would already “be content” if there was a vaccine with an efficiency of 70% to 75%. However, this incomplete protection and the fact that many Americans say they will not be vaccinated against the coronavirus makes it “unlikely” that the United States will achieve sufficient levels of immunity to contain the outbreak.
An analysis by “CNN” last month found that a third of Americans are reluctant to receive vaccines against Covid-19, even though it is widely available and at low cost.
With support from the Donald Trump Government, three vaccines against Covid-19 are expected to be studied in large-scale clinical trials in the next three months, writes the American channel. So far, “the best we have ever done has been the measles vaccine, which is 97 to 98% effective,” said the director of the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, admitting that “it would be wonderful if we got there.”
The epidemiologist warned of “a general anti-science, anti-authority and anti-vaccine sentiment among some people” in the country, so, he stressed, “there is a lot of work to do” to educate citizens about the importance of vaccines. However, he acknowledged that “it will not be easy”.
When asked about the score he would give the country, during the fight against the new coronavirus, Fauci said that some states are behaving better than others. “Some States will be A +, some A and others C”, he said, although without clarifying which States are in question. The United States “is not doing very well,” he shot.
Until there is a vaccine, one of the keys to controlling the virus is tracking contacts, he also defended, warning that there are areas in which 20 to 40% of those infected are asymptomatic.
The United States, remember, is the country with the highest number of deaths (125,803 out of 2,549,069 cases) associated with the new coronavirus.
* News updated with more information at 15:59
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