National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci responded on Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Ayman Mohyeldin Reports” to comments from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) criticizing the push for Americans to get coronavirus vaccines.
In an interview on “The Vicki McKenna Show” Thursday, Johnson said, “Because it’s not a fully approved vaccine, I think we probably should have limited the distribution to the vulnerable. To people that really are — to the very young, I see no reason to be pushing vaccines on people. What is the point? The science tells us vaccines are 95% effective. So if you have a vaccine, quite honestly, what do you care if your neighbor has one or not? What is it to you? You got a vaccine, and science is telling you it’s very, very effective. So why this big push to make sure everybody gets the vaccine?”
Fauci said, “I’m not understanding, with all due respect, what he’s saying. All three vaccines that are available are on emergency use. So I’m not sure what the point is. The Moderna is on emergency use authorization. The Pfizer is an emergency use authorization, and the J&J is an emergency use authorization.”
Mohyeldin said, “I think he is referring to all three. Not to interrupt you, but I think he’s referring to all three, the fact all of them are under this emergency use authorization. Why is the government pushing for everyone to have it, certainly those that are 16?”
Fauci said, “Well, there’s a pretty good reason. We have 567,000 people who have died so far in this country from this disease. That is a really, really good reason to get people vaccinated, with a vaccine, that you’ve shown is highly efficacious and quite safe. And that’s the reason for the emergency use authorization. We are dealing with an emergency. How can anyone say that 567,000 dead Americans is not an emergency.”
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