Dr. Anthony Fauci Answers Your COVID-19 Vaccine Questions: 'You Can Have An Informed Choice'

now, the United States has a reported 14 million COVID-19 cases, about 40,000 more cases than any time the virus hit its first peak, in the spring. And Dr. Robert Redfield, the head the Centers for Infection Control and Preventions, recently mentioned that the winter may be particularly dangerous, and that by February 2021, the nation could visualize up to 450,000 Residents of the United States dead from the virus, The New York Times reports.


One key difference between right now and the early months of the pandemic in the U.S. Is that there really are a couple of vaccines on the horizon, with up to 40 million doses potentially available through pharmaceutical corporations Pfizer and Moderna by the end of the year. Those would likely go to health care workers and residents of nursing homes, as suggested by a scientific panel this week.


Perhaps most immediate question on the minds of Residents of the United States is: When do we get vaccinated? the response appears to be in 2021, likely in the spring months, right after health care workers and those with conditions that place them at higher risk of the virus. However once we get there — especially among young, healthy people who are low-risk for COVID-19 — there's another, more philosophical question: "Should I get vaccinated?"


the response, as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, put it to MTV News recently, is absolutely.


"A vaccine is beneficial for you as a sole, however it's also good in case you aspire to totally crush this outbreak the way we did with smallpox and polio and measles," Fauci mentioned. "You want virtually everybody to get vaccinated, so it's almost a societal responsibility to do that."


He also stressed that he totally plans to be vaccinated once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives the call that it's safe do so. "And I am going to propose to my family member, any time their turn comes up, that they should take the vaccine."


Still, because the pandemic has changed our day-to-day lives so totally — and as rampant misinformation recently instigated Facebook to start removing false information about the vaccine — it could be hard to get on board with a vaccination because of fears about safety. Fauci recognizes this, and he stressed that both the government and big agencies are removed from the method of monitoring the safety of the vaccine.


"The decision of whether or not a vaccine is judged to be safe and efficient is really made by an independent body called the Statistics and Safety Monitoring Board that monitors the conduct of the trial and accumulates the information Fauci mentioned. That board is made up of "vaccinologists, immunologists, virologists, statisticians, and ethicists," he mentioned, who visualize the information before the firm does. The organization then presents its statistics to the FDA — "the career scientists, not the politicians" — which ultimately makes a decision based on an independent advisory group.


In other words: "You can be guaranteed that this process was independent and was transparent," Fauci mentioned, adding that the findings will also be published in a scientific journal.


Right right now, researchers are currently testing 58 vaccines in clinical trials on human beings, and we've heard about big potential success stories from Pfizer, Moderna, and more. So, as soon as we're there, there may be confusion about which vaccine to actually take. Fauci had an answer for that, too.


"There will be suggestions likely that one vaccine might be better for maybe elderly individuals versus younger individuals versus individuals with underlying conditions. So it will be made clear that you would likely have a choice, just the way you have a choice with an influenza vaccine," he mentioned. Nevertheless once there really is intelligence that one might be better for a certain demographic order, that will be made public and also you could have an informed choice."


Watch Fauci's full interview with MTV News in the initial video above.