Anthony Fauci, MD, said during a presentation at IDWeek that he is “cautiously optimistic” that a COVID-19 vaccine will be ready by year’s end. He noted that the country’s “strategic approach” to vaccine development appears to be bearing fruit. Six US companies, he said, are working around the clock to either facilitate vaccine trials or compile the supplies necessary to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine once it is ready. Multiple studies are testing three vaccine approaches, Dr. Fauci said. And five of those studies are already in phase III. “We feel confident that we will have an answer likely in mid-November to the beginning of December,” he said. While stressing there is no guarantee of success, Dr. Fauci noted that he is “cautiously optimistic that we will in fact have a safe and effective vaccine by the end of the year, which we can begin to distribute as we go into 2021.” At the same time, he took pains to paint a realistic picture of the significant hurdles that lie ahead. There is “a great degree of skepticism and reluctance on the part of some populations to getting vaccinated,” he added. Blacks and Hispanics in the United States are much less likely than Whites to say that they will definitely get vaccinated once the option becomes available. “We have a challenge to get these people involved so we can allow them to be afforded the protection that we feel vaccines can give,” he added.
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Meeting Coverage
- ACC 2020The American College of Cardiology decided to cancel ACC.20/WCC due to COVID-19, which was scheduled to take place March 28-30 in Chicago. However, ACC.20/WCC Virtual Meeting continues to release cutting edge science and practice changing updates for cardiovascular professionals on demand and free through June 2020.
- ENDO: 2020ENDO 2020 Annual Conference has been canceled due to COVID-19. Here are highlights of emerging data that has still been released. Keep an eye out for ENDO Online 2020, which will take place from June 8 to 22.
- CROI 2020Every year, CROI hosts some of the world's leading experts in HIV research, who come to present exciting new data and drive forward the field of HIV/AIDS research. This year, due to COVID-19, CROI held their meeting virtually.