The United States vaccine distribution program is facing a roadblock of almost 93 million people, who are eligible for the jab, but are “somewhat resistant” to recieving the COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Australia’s ABC 7.30 program on Aug. 5.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said the solution for U.S. authorities was to turn to social media influencers and trusted members of communities to spread the message.
“We’ve got to get trusted messengers out there; clergy, family physicians, trusted members and admired members (of the community), sports figures,” he said.
But even then, Fauci alleged what he called a “political divide” as being at the root of vaccine hesitancy in the “red states,” Florida and Texas.
“About 40 percent of all the new infections in the United States are occurring in two states, Florida and Texas,” Fauci said, adding that over 20 percent of all new infections were in Florida.
The NAID director alleged that residents of both states “don’t trust the vaccine” and didn’t “want to be told what to do.” “They’re not getting the right kind of a stimulus to do everything you possibly can,” he went on to say.
Despite this, Fauci noted that the United States had succeeded in vaccinating millions via mass vaccination hubs, such as at sports stadiums and parking lots. He referred to the people vaccinated at these hubs as the “low hanging fruit.”
Authorities turned to pharmacies, he said. “We have 40,000 pharmacies that we’ve put vaccines into where people don’t have to negotiate a computer; can just walk in and get a dose.”
The United States also had mobile units as well as “a big equity program to try and access our brown and black people who are generally more vulnerable to getting the severe effects leading to hospitalizations.”
Fauci explored why authorities have been reluctant mandate the COVID-19 vaccines, which have yet to be “fully approved and fully licensed” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“Authorities at the local level are hesitant to mandate vaccines because they’re afraid of the legal implications that if they don’t have a licensed vaccine, someone can sue you for trying to force you, as it were,” he said.
But the ultimate solution, for Fauci, was “coming soon.”
“Once you get a vaccine fully approved, you are going to get universities and colleges which will say ‘if you want to be in our institution, you’ve got to get vaccinated.’ That will encompass a substantial proportion of the young people,” he said.
“You will get major industries, I don’t know what they will be, you know, oil companies, Amazon, Microsoft—whatever it’s going to be, I don’t know, I’m just naming them empirically—who are going to say if you want to work in our place, you are going to have to get vaccinated, I think that’s going to go a long way of getting for those people who still don’t want to get vaccinated,” Fauci said.
During the interview, Fauci also said that children should be vaccinated because they will spread the virus. However, this goes against what the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, Dr. Robert Malone, who maintains that the risk-benefit ratio of the vaccine for children doesn’t “look so good.”
Malone urged people to take the time to do their research before making a decision. “It’s up to you. It’s your body. It’s your choice. I strongly suggest that you take the time to get informed, do the best you can, and then make the decision that you think is right for you,” Malone said.
COVID-19 vaccines aren’t currently available for children under the age of 12 in the United States. However, Pfizer said in a statement in June that it was beginning to test its mRNA vaccine in a larger group of children under the age of 12 after selecting a lower dose of the shot in an earlier stage of the trial.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recently said in a podcast that he believed it was likely that a COVID-19 vaccine for children under 12 will be given emergency use authorization during the next school year.
