Benefit of vaccines is incontrovertible, says Fauci
White House Chief Medical Advisor and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that the data is showing the benefit of vaccines is not able to be denied or disputed.
Dr. Fauci was responding to a question by CNBC financial news anchor Sara Eisen on “Closing Bell” Friday.
Revealing she was vaccinated and had COVID and that three vaccinated people and two unvaccinated children in her house had gotten the disease, Eisen had asked the chief medical advisor if the government was too casual about the limitations of the vaccine and was not warning that even fully vaccinated people can get infected.
“Oh yes I am, we have,” replied Dr. Fauci, according to the interview’s unofficial transcript US and Global News received from NBC Universal, whose News Group division owns CNBC. “And we’ve said that and let me just give you the science and the facts.”
He added, “If you are an unvaccinated person, you have five times the likelihood of getting infected, 11 times the likelihood of being hospitalized and 11 times the likelihood of dying, compared to someone who’s been vaccinated. So, the data showing the benefit of vaccines is incontrovertible.”
The NIAID director further added that more than 90 percent of the people who have died from COVID-19 were unvaccinated.
“Vaccination protects you against severe disease and even when you get breakthrough infections because remember no vaccine is 100%, protected, but what we do know is that if you get vaccinated and get a breakthrough infection, you are much less likely of getting a severe outcome,” Dr. Fauci went on to say.
The interview began with the mention of pharmaceutical company Merck’s recent announcement about the anti-COVID-19 pill having a 50% decrease in the hospitalization and the question that how does Dr. Anthony Fauci sees the development and how fast the orally administered medicine can be available.
“It was compared to a placebo and the endpoint that does it reduce the risk of hospitalization or death, the results are really quite good,” replied the Biden administration’s chief medical advisor. “Importantly in the placebo group, there were eight deaths and in the treatment drug group, there was zero death so that adds a bit more of an importance to the study.”
Responding to the pill availability part of the question, Dr. Fauci pointed out that Merck had said they would be sending the data to the FDA within a day or so.
“So, you’ve got to make sure you give the FDA the time to very carefully go over the data and make the kind of determinations for emergency use authorization,” he stated, adding, “I can’t predict when it will be but I can tell you one thing they will do it as quickly as they possibly can so rather than give a deadline know that they are working very hard to get this done in an expeditious manner.”
