Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease expert and has been on different pandemics for the last four decades, said that the future COVID-19 vaccine will not give 100 percent immunity.

Dr. Anthony Fauci
Reutersconnect

Recently, Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted that there is no guarantee for an effective COVID-19 vaccine because of the time it is developed. This is even though he is optimistic that the vaccine will arrive soon, maybe before the year ends or early 2021.

He cautioned people during a recent live-streamed Q&A hosted by Brown University that the chances of the vaccine to be 98 percent effective is not that great. This means that people should not expect these vaccines will give 100 percent immunity against the virus.

The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said, "You've got to think of a vaccine as a tool to be able to get a pandemic to no longer be a pandemic, but to be something that's well-controlled." As Dr. Fauci mentioned in the past few days, the virus cannot be eradicated but can only be controlled.

He also told Abdullah Shihipar, a public health research associate at Brown during the interview, that the vaccine and public health measures can bring down the virus, so eliminating the global pandemic cannot be done by the vaccine alone.

Dr. Fauci firmly believed that the developed COVID-19 vaccines are most likely to be effective between 70 to 75 percent and will not deliver 100 percent immunity. Moreover, the measles vaccine is among the most effective vaccines that can give 97 percent immunity.

According to the previous studies of the Mayo Clinic, a flu vaccine is about 50 to 60 percent effective for healthy adults who are between 18 and 64 years old. They also added that there are instances where the vaccine may be less effective.

However, they also explained that even though the vaccine may ultimately prevent the flu, it may lessen the severity of the illness. This is the reason why Dr. Fauci said that vaccines could not stop the virus alone, and health measures should be strictly observed.

Dr. Fauci said that people should wear facemasks with or without the COVID-19 vaccine, observe social distancing, avoid public places, practice the highest form of hygiene, avoid large gatherings, and more. He even said that he would remind people about these measures until he gets exhausted.

Meanwhile, U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen Hahn said last month that the agency would approve a vaccine as long as it is 50 percent effective. Hahn said, "We all want a vaccine tomorrow, that's unrealistic, and we all want a vaccine that's 100% effective, again unrealistic. We said 50%."

As of today, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has recorded more than 5 million infections in the country and a death toll of over 160,000. Additionally, the number of COVID-19 cases in the country continues to increase.

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