WASHINGTON. — The United States could get COVID-19 under control by early next year if vaccinations ramp up, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday, one day after Pfizer PFE.N won fuller FDA approval for its shot, with more potential approvals coming in the weeks ahead.
Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said in multiple television interviews and a White House press conference that full Food and Drug Administration approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine paves the way for more people to get inoculated, with potential approval for Moderna Inc’s MRNA.O in the coming weeks and authorization for younger children by autumn.
“I would like to appeal to the people in the country who are not vaccinated to realize that we have the capability, among ourselves, to essentially cut down the time frame to getting to the end of this pandemic,” Fauci, head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a Tuesday press conference.
“I think there’s a reasonable chance” that Pfizer or Moderna could get FDA clearance for children under 12 before the upcoming holiday season, he told NBC News. “Hopefully by the mid-late fall and early winter.”
US officials during the Tuesday press briefing also urged private employers and more state and local governments to require staff to get vaccinated in a bid to drive up vaccination rates.
“Now is the time” for US employers to start mandating vaccinations, White House COVID coordinator Jeffrey Zients said, echoing remarks from President Joe Biden on Monday.
Meanwhile, the White House is preparing to provide third “booster” doses starting in mid-September to Americans who received their COVID-19 inoculation more than eight months ago. The plan depends upon a thumbs up from the FDA and an advisory panel to the CDC.
“We want to make sure we stay ahead of the virus,” Zients said, adding that “the plan is pending the FDA conducting an independent evaluation and outside experts… issuing a booster dose recommendation.”
Fauci added that healthcare providers should also make more use of COVID-19 antibody treatments, including those from Eli Lilly & Co LLY.N, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals REGN.O, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc GSK.L/Vir Biotechnology Inc VIR.O. Such treatments can reduce hospitalizations and deaths by as much as 85% if used early in infected people, he said.
