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Operation Warp Speed chief scientific adviser Moncef Slaoui said on Sunday that it could be months before researchers are sure whether transmission of COVID-19 is possible from a person who has received the vaccine.
On CBS “Face the Nation,” host Margaret Brennan asked Slaoui when scientists will know if such transmission is possible, a key factor in determining when the United States will develop herd immunity to the virus.
“Do you have a date when you will know if once you’ve been vaccinated you can still pass the virus on to other people?” Brennan asked.
“No,” Slaoui replied. “These studies, frankly, will be based on observational data from the population. I don’t think we’ll have any data until late spring.”
Is #OperationWarpSpeed have a schedule after you’ve been vaccinated so you can still donate #coronavirus to others?
Slaoui tells @margbrennan “no” without any data projection on such a timeline until the end of spring pic.twitter.com/0Ibkk4YWl1
– Face the Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 3, 2021
He also addressed reports of delays in the deployment of vaccination in the United States, appointing the surgeon general Jerome Adams
Jerome AdamsSunday shows preview: Senate Candidates Prepare for Georgia Second Round; Government continues coronavirus vaccine rollout on Sunday – opposition to Trump’s COVID-19 relief bill dominates surgeon general over medical racism: ‘We need to recognize these things’ did in a separate single-digit interview on Sunday indicating that 1.5 million Americans have received vaccines in the past 72 hours.
“Our assumption has been that there is a plan in place to vaccinate,” Slaoui said of the state’s efforts to distribute the vaccine. “We are here to respond to any specific request. We will do our best, as we have done over the past eight months, to make sure these vaccines are in people’s arms.”
Senior federal officials have defended the U.S. rollout of Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines over the past few days amid reports of a large gap in the number of vaccines distributed to states, which has totaled over 14 million, and the number of Americans who have actually been vaccinated. Just over 4 million doses have been administered in the United States
“Somehow there is a lag in the way the numbers are calculated, but it is surely a number that is smaller than the 14 million doses that are already available to us,” Slaoui said last week. “We agree that this number is lower than we expected.”
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