COVID-19 Vaccine Could Be Available to Everyone by Late March, Says Dr. Jha on ‘The View’

It’s not often that The View makes you feel optimistic about the state of the world, but then again, this is 2020. On Monday morning, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, offered the co-hosts some good news when he explained that average Americans could receive the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as “late March to April, if everything goes well.” Added Dr. Jha, “Once these vaccines are out and the majority of Americans take it, life will get meaningfully better.” Finally, something to look forward to!

This morning, just hours after a New York City nurse became the first person to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, Jha appeared on The View to answer the co-host’s questions about the vaccine and discuss distribution plans. The public health professional started off on a bright note, explaining that the vaccine “is light at the end of the tunnel” nine months after the outbreak first began in the U.S. “This is the beginning of the end of this pandemic,” he said.

Jha went on to explain that it’s imperative that Americans get “both parts of the vaccine” (Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine requires two doses, taken three weeks apart). “If you want longer-term benefit, you’ve got to go back for that second shot,” he told The View‘s co-hosts. “We think that we might get 80% benefit, potentially, for a little bit of time after one dose, but that will wane and you’ll become vulnerable again. So it’s really important that people get both shots of the vaccine.”

Right now, first responders and high-risk Americans are first in line to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but Jha predicts that the general population could receive their first dose by late March or early April, provided that all goes well with distribution. “Especially if we get new vaccines coming online, that by the time we’re into April, and certainly into May, most Americans will be able to get the vaccine,” said Jha, adding that he expects the FDA to authorize Moderna’s vaccine, which does not have extreme storage guidelines, by next week.

Jha’s prediction seems to be in line with that of other medical professionals, including Dr. Anthony Fauci. On Monday, Fauci told MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson that Americans with no underlying health conditions should receive the COVID-19 vaccine “sometime by the end of March, the beginning of April.” He added that “if we’re efficient about it and we convince people to get vaccinated,” the U.S. can achieve an “umbrella of herd immunity” by “the end of the late spring, early summer.”

But even amid all this optimism, Jha urged Americans to be cautious, particularly throughout the cold-weather months. “The next six weeks are going to be really, really bad,” he told the co-hosts, explaining that hospitals are already overwhelmed with patients, and medical professionals only expect it to get worse. “We know what to do: wear a mask when you’re outside the home. Don’t socialize with people who are not part of your bubble. These are not things you have to do forever — really just for the next 6-8 weeks, and [after that] things will start turning around. If we can just hunker down, we’re going to save a lot of lives.”

“Anybody who gets infected today who dies is somebody who could have gotten vaccinated two months from now,” Jha reminded viewers. “So, let’s keep people around and keep people safe until the vaccine becomes widely available.”

Watch Dr. Ashish Jha provide a sliver of hope for Americans in the clip above.

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