During an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Feb. 28, Fauci was asked by host George Stephanopoulos about the possibility of some patients “vaccine shopping” to get one of the more effective vaccines. He immediately dismissed the idea of attempting to choose one type of vaccine over another, saying: “All three of them are really quite good, and people should take the one that’s most available to them.” And for more vaccine news you need to know, check out The Pfizer Vaccine May Be Less Effective If You Have This Common Condition. Fauci also explained on This Week that getting a shot as soon as possible is the best course of action for anyone who has become eligible. “I’m vaccinated now, but if I were not vaccinated, and I was going to go into a clinic, and they said, ‘Hey, we have J&J [Johnson & Johnson] now, or you can wait three weeks or so to get another one,’ I would take the one that is available to me now, because the quicker you get vaccinated, the more quickly you will be protected, and you will add on to the overall protection in your county [and] in your country.“ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb “I mean, to me, that is a no-brainer,” he added. And for more on what you might expect post-shot, check out Doctors Are Warning You to “Be Prepared” for This After Your Second Dose. Fauci then went on to warn against comparing the existing three vaccines head-to-head. He also defended the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, saying that it still stood out as a “safe and efficacious” option, especially when looking at how well it could affect the outcome of your brush with COVID. “The J&J … [vaccine has] got greater than 85 percent efficacy after severe disease and critical disease. And there were no deaths or hospitalizations in any of the countries that were tested,” he said. And for more COVID news delivered right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. While discussing similar topics on NBC’s Meet the Press on Feb. 28, Fauci also repeated warnings that he and other health officials have recently made about making sure we don’t reverse the current downward trend in COVID cases by removing public health guidelines too soon. “We’ve been in this situation before,” he said. “Our baseline of daily infections now, even though it’s way down from where it was, 300,000-plus per day… is down to around 70,000. That baseline’s too high. Let’s keep our feet on the accelerator right now, because we are going in the right direction.” And for more on what you can look forward to once you’re immunized, check out Dr. Fauci Just Confirmed You Can Do This After Getting Vaccinated.
