The U.S. can likely avoid fall COVID-19 surges if it vaccinates 70 percent of all adults in the country by July 4, Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a May 20 interview with The Washington Post.
The July 4 deadline stems from a national goal President Joe Biden set in early May, which aims to have 70 percent of adults receive at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 160 million adults fully vaccinated by this time.
"If we get to the president's goal, which I believe we will attain … there will be enough protection in the community that I really don't foresee there being the risk of a surge, provided we continue to get people vaccinated at the rate we have now," Dr. Fauci told the Post.
As of May 20, 60.5 percent of the nation's adult population had received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 48.4 percent had been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.