WH task force: Vaccine may not reduce virus spread until late spring
Iran Press TV
Wednesday, 09 December 2020 10:15 PM
The White House coronavirus task force has warned the governors across the United States that the ongoing vaccination plan won't reduce the spread of the disease until the end of spring.
"The current vaccine implementation will not substantially reduce viral spread, hospitalizations, or fatalities until the 100 million Americans with comorbidities can be fully immunized, which will take until the late spring," the task force wrote in its weekly report issued on Tuesday.
"Behavioral change and aggressive mitigation policies are the only widespread prevention tools that we have to address this winter surge," the report reiterated.
The report sharply contradicted the comments made by the US President Donald Trump earlier on the day, claiming that the US vaccination plan would "quickly and dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations and within a short period of time."
This comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) has described the coronavirus death toll in the United States as shocking, warning that the US is "facing a critical situation."
Last week was the deadliest for the US since the beginning of the pandemic, with 15,578 deaths -- roughly equivalent to 92 deaths reported every hour.
The US is now averaging more than 200,000 new cases each day -- three times higher than the country's summer peak in July, and more than six times higher than the country's spring peak in April.
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