Doha: Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said that the COVID-19 pandemic will end with an effective and safe vaccine but alongside public health measures.
He was in conversation with Editor in Chief of medical journal The BMJ, Fiona Godlee, during the fourth day of World Innovation Summit for Health 2020, yesterday.
“I believe the COVID-19 pandemic will end with an effective and safe vaccine that ultimately will be widely distributed throughout the world. But that is going to happen together with public health measures. I don’t think it’s going to be like measles where it’s 98% effective even though it’s a highly transmissible virus,” he said.
“But you have got to roll out the vaccine together with public health measures until the overall protection umbrella essentially is all over the world. It’s probably going to take a year or two to happen,” he added.
Speaking on regulatory mechanism of COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Fauci said, “A lot of things are politicised but I think people across the world and in the US should realise that there are a lot of fail-safe checks. We have assurances from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner that science itself and not political considerations will dictate the decisions about the regulatory components of the vaccine trial.”
For most people, COVID-19 is a brief and mild disease but some are left struggling with symptoms including lasting fatigue, persistent pain and breathlessness for months, and it’s known as ‘long COVID’.
About ‘long COVID’, Dr. Fauci said, “We’re starting to see emerging information. That’s why we need to take this disease with a degree of humility and commit to preventing infection, through universal wearing of masks, avoiding crowds, distance, washing hands, and doing everything we can to get a vaccine.”
During the conversation, Dr. Fauci acknowledged the deep impact of COVID-19 on minorities in the US, especially African-Americans, a result of social determinants of health.
Dr. Fauci, who is also a physician and immunologist, shared why he continues to see patients. “If you ask me what my underlying identity is that always grounds me in the reality of what we need to do and gives me insight into the kind of emphasis we need, it’s my identity as a physician. It really helps me to understand disease pathogenesis, but also to understand the impact that has on them and it inspires me,” he said.
