WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th June, 2020) There is no certainty the United States will be able to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 that works and will be safe, top US pandemics expert Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday.
"There is no guarantee that anyone who has been involved in vaccinology will tell you that we will have a safe and effective vaccine, but we are cautiously optimistic," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a Senate hearing.
Data on vaccine effectiveness, Fauci added, may be available in the winter or early next year.
Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the same hearing that details on the progress of COVID-19 vaccine initiatives were expected "in the weeks ahead."
Fauci also said at least 70 percent of the US population needs to be immune from the coronavirus before "herd immunity" is achieved.
