Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday.
After the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory panel rejected a plan on Friday to offer Pfizer booster shots for all Americans, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci defended the White House’s earlier plan to begin rolling out the shots this month.
“The plan was that we have to be ready to do this as soon as the decision is made and when you have a plan, you put a date on it, and you say we want to be able to get ready to roll out on the week of September the 20th,” Fauci said Sunday. “So giving that date I don’t think was confusing, we needed a date to be able to say, let’s get ready to roll this out, pending the decision of the deliberation by the FDA and ultimately the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).”
ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz pressed Fauci on whether the White House’s premature announcement created any confusion.
“You yourself have said how important consistency and messaging can be and you mentioned earlier President Biden talked about planning for a September 20th rollout for all Americans. I know he said ‘planning,’ I know he said it depends on the FDA, but isn’t a timeline like that just confusing to people?” Raddatz asked.
“These are the kinds of things that when you make a decision, you don’t snap your finger and it gets rolled out the next day and that’s I think the thing that the people in the United States need to understand,” he responded.
“I’m not disappointed, I think the process worked,” Fauci added.
This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.
