Healthcare

Fauci: Pfizer Vaccine Could Be Distributed ‘By The End Of The Year’

No featured image available

White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that a coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer may be distributed by the end of the year.

Pfizer announced Monday that its vaccine was 90% effective at preventing coronavirus infection during clinical trials.

“It is really a big deal,” Fauci said in an interview on CNN about the Pfizer results.

Fauci, who serves as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said that Pfizer will begin in the next 10 days applying for emergency use authorization and ultimate approval of the vaccine.

He said that if the process goes smoothly, as he expects, “we may have doses that we’re able to give to people by the end of November, beginning of December.”

“We would be giving vaccine to people very likely before the end of this year. That is good news,” Fauci said.

Moderna, another pharmaceutical company, is developing a vaccine similar to Pfizer’s that is also likely to prove effective against coronavirus, Fauci said.

The Pfizer version will likely be administered in two doses over the course of a month.

Fauci said in September that he expected a “safe and effective” vaccine to be developed by the end of this year.