JUDY WOODRUFF: Let's understand more about the latest on vaccines and the strains of
the virus. Dr. Anthony Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases at the NIH. He's also a top adviser to President Biden on the pandemic. Dr. Fauci,
welcome back to the "NewsHour." So, let me ask you about this new vaccine that was announced
today by Johnson & Johnson. It is one dose. It is more easily stored. How much of a help
do you expect it to be? DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: I think it's going to be value-added for sure,
Judy, both in the United States, but also in developing nations, because of the fact
that it has good efficacy. It isn't as much as the 94 percent to 95 percent of the two
vaccines that already have emergency authorization. It is 72 percent effective against mild to
moderate disease, but against severe disease, even the mutants that we're seeing in South
Africa, it has pretty good protection against severe disease. So, it will be useful in keeping
people out of the hospital. And if you look at the severity effects of the data that we
just examined today, that, in the vaccine group, there were essentially no hospitalizations
or deaths, so it protected pretty well against severe disease, which is good news. JUDY WOODRUFF:
And so -- but the fact that it's less effective against this variant in South Africa, how
much does that undercut its value? DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, that's a good point. It undercuts
it a bit, if you want to have equivalent efficacy against what we call the wild type strains
that are circulating here and the South African strains. But in severe disease of the South
African strain, it has about an 85 percent or 88 percent efficacy. So, when you're dealing
with a serious situation like, that is not bad. What it will trigger us having to do,
Judy, though, is to upgrade the vaccines that we have now to make it in a form that would
directly address mutant strains, be they in South Africa or any other place where they
emerge. So, right now, we have already started the process of making upgraded vaccines to
address it. But, given the fact that, against severe disease, this particular candidate
did pretty well, all in all, that's good news. JUDY WOODRUFF: And you raise the question,
the next question, which is on the minds of so many. Can you keep up with these new variants,
these new strains that are occurring in Brazil and in South Africa and other places? How
worried are you that new vaccine will keep up with all this? DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: That's
an excellent question and an excellent point, Judy. And one of the best ways to prevent
the further evolution of mutants is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible.
And the reason is, viruses don't mutate unless they actively replicate. So, when you have
a lot of disease in the community and a lot of infections, the way we, unfortunately,
have had in the United States over the last several months, then you give the virus a
lot more opportunity to mutate. If we can implement our vaccine programs with the vaccines
that we currently have and bring the level of virus replication and dynamics in the community
to a very low level, the virus will not mutate as efficiently as it does when you have an
explosion of infections. JUDY WOODRUFF: Dr. Fauci, I know that vaccine distribution is
not the area that you're in charge of. But it is stark that, what, 40 -- more than 48
million doses have been sent out to the states, but only 21-some million Americans have received
at least one dose. Do you have any better understanding of what's gone wrong? DR. ANTHONY
FAUCI: Well, I think one thing -- not an excuse, Judy, but one thing people should realize,
that the actual counting of what's gone on into people's arm lags a bit. So, there clearly
is more that's gone into the arms than has been recorded, because, if you do it today,
it may not get recorded for a couple of days or even longer. Having said that, and not
having an excuse, what going on right now, as President Biden made it very, very clear,
he's going to be doing everything he can within his strategic plan that he put out last week
to be able to get the implementation of the program as efficient as possible, community
vaccine centers, getting the pharmacies much more involved, getting mobile units, trying
to get more doses out of a vial by getting dead space syringes associated with the needles.
Those are the kind of things. So, we're recognizing that we have work to do, but it is really
taking very, very seriously, particularly with regard to the plan that the president
has just put out. JUDY WOODRUFF: And one other thing. Everybody wants to know, when are we
going to get back to some semblance of normal? You are a big baseball fan. When do you think
fans will be able to go back to the stadium again? DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: You know, I hope
that we will have some degree of participation of spectators at sometime this summer. When
you talk about getting back to some form of normality, you generally talk about approaching
what we call herd immunity, where you have enough people vaccinated that the level is
so low and people are generally protected as a group, as a cohort. I believe that will
be somewhere between 70 percent and 85 percent of the population. If we rev up the vaccinations
between the months of March, April, May, June, July, I believe, by the time we get into the
summer, we will be approaching that. I can't guarantee it, Judy, but I do hope, as we get
into the summer, that we will see spectators in the stands. JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we're
all looking for any shred of good news, as you know. Dr. Anthony Fauci, thank you very
much for joining us. We appreciate it. DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Good to be with you, as always,
Judy. Thank you.