As we draw closer to a full year of the pandemic here in the States, optimism can be found in the continued rollout of vaccines, despite none of this moving fast enough to bring total peace of mind.
In an interview with Savannah Guthrie on Today that aired Thursday morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci—director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—shared his latest predictions on when the general public (i.e. those not in high-risk groups) can expect to be able to start getting vaccinated.
“We have those priority [groups]—1a, 1b, 1c,” Dr. Fauci said. “If you look at the projection, I would imagine by the time we get to April, that will be what I would call for [lack of] better wording ‘open season.’ Namely, virtually everybody and anybody in any category could start to get vaccinated. From then on, it would likely take several more months just logistically to get vaccines into people’s arms so that hopefully—as we get into the middle and end of the summer—we could have accomplished the goal of what we’re talking about. Namely, the overwhelming majority of people in this country having gotten vaccinated.”
Earlier this week, the CDC—following advice to the public from Dr. Fauci about the benefits of double-masking—shared a study pointing to the importance of ensuring one’s make fits tightly to the face when it comes to limiting the spread of the virus that cause COVID-19.
In lab tests, exposure to potentially infectious aerosols was found to decrease by an estimated 95 percent when wearing tightly fitted masks. The two examples of “tightly fitted” given were wearing a cloth mask over a medical procedure mask, as well as wearing a medical procedure mask with knotted ear loops and tucked-in sides.
