Dec 2, 2020 - Health

Fauci: U.S. could have herd immunity by the end of summer 2021

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Anthony Fauci speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on November 19 — National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci at the White House in November. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

NIAID director Anthony Fauci said Tuesday the U.S. could achieve herd immunity to COVID-19 by the end of next summer or fall if there's a "good uptake" of Americans vaccinating against the virus.

Driving the news: Fauci said during an online video conversation with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) he expects the general population to have access to the vaccines U.S regulators are now considering by April.

Fauci said if the "overwhelming majority" of Americans embraced coronavirus immunization by the end of the second quarter, the U.S. would achieve herd immunity — in which the pandemic would be curtailed as enough people in the community would be immune to the disease.

The bottom line: "That would allow you to safely get people back to school in the fall, to safely get people back to the kinds of work that would otherwise be difficult as you get to the middle and the end of the summer," he said.

"It's going to start in April, and it’s going to go right through the end of the second quarter of 2021."

"Once we get there, we can crush this outbreak, just the way we did with smallpox ... we just need to hang together a bit longer."

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Fauci: U.S. could have herd immunity by the end of summer 2021

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