9 in 10 Americans not yet immune to COVID, CDC director says

The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a Senate committee on Wednesday that 90% of Americans are still at risk of contracting the virus.

"The preliminary results in the first round [of a very large, ongoing CDC study] show that a majority of our nation, more than 90% of the population, remains susceptible," Dr. Robert Redfield testified. "A majority of Americans are still susceptible to this virus."

Redfield added that some states are seeing infection rates of 15% to 20% while others are seeing a less than 1% infection rate, CBS News reported.

At the same time, Redfield reiterated that the majority of Americans may not be able to get a coronavirus vaccine until next year this after President Donald Trump said last week that Redfield had "made a mistake" in stating that earlier this month, CBS News reported.

"We will have the 700 million doses based on projection by late March, early April," Redfield told the committee.

At the same committee hearing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there would likely only be 50 million doses by December, so "it is not going to be a large proportion of the population" that receives the vaccine by the end of the year. Fauci said the first to get the vaccine would "likely will be health care providers and likely will be those who are vulnerable with preexisting conditions."

Dr. Stephen Hahn, head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, repeatedly said in his opening statement to the committee that the efficacy of a vaccine would be determined only by FDA scientists.

"I will fight for science. I will fight for the integrity of the agency," Hahn said. Just this week, the agency proposed guidelines that would strengthen the vetting process of any new coronavirus vaccine.

Later on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said the White House may or may not approve those new FDA guidelines, claiming they may have been politically motivated, The New York Times reported.

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