|
 Collins said in an interview with Fox News that he is not worried
about having enough vaccine supply. He is more concerned "with the
hesitancy that is still there in a lot of groups" that will make it
harder to reach immunity "because so many people will basically say,
'No, not for me.'
"That could basically cause this pandemic to go on much longer than
it needs to," he said.
President Joe Biden announced earlier on Thursday that his
administration has set a new goal of 200 million shots of
coronavirus vaccine by the end of his first 100 days in office,
double his original goal.
Collins said health officials do not know what proportion of the
population has had COVID-19, and he encouraged Americans who know
they contracted the disease to get vaccinated.
[to top of second column] |
 "Surprisingly, being infected
with the natural disease of COVID-19 doesn't
provide as much immunity to getting infected a
second time than the vaccine does," he said.
Like other public health officials, Collins
warned it was too soon to declare victory
against the coronavirus pandemic, citing
resurgences in some European countries caused by
virus variants.
"We still have to stick to those public health
measures to limit the transmission of this
highly infectious variant while we get the rest
of the country vaccinated, and then, by the
summer, we may begin to be able to put this in
the rear view mirror," he said. "But it's not
time yet."
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Richard
Pullin)
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