WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday stressed that he's concerned that the Trump administration has not yet greenlighted the formal transition to the incoming Biden administration, which the infectious disease expert said is key to the quick distribution of a Covid-19 vaccine.
In an interview on NBC's "TODAY" show, host Savannah Guthrie asked Fauci whether he's concerned that the Trump administration has not signed off on the formal transition period for the Biden team.
"Obviously, it's something that we're concerned about," he said. "I mean, as you know, I've served in six administrations, so I've seen a number of transitions and I know that transitions are very important. Hopefully, we'll see that soon."
In other transition news:
President-elect Joe Biden will deliver remarks on the economy in the afternoon.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the "incompetent" Trump administration has not "thought through" the vaccination distribution process.
Fauci said that health care experts project that by the end of December, there will be doses of vaccines available for people in the high-risk category from both Pfizer and Moderna, which announced Monday that its vaccine candidate in Phase 3 trials is 94.5 percent effective.
"The vaccines are effective. We want to get it approved as quickly as we possibly can. We want to get doses to people starting in December, and then we want to really get the ball rolling as we get into January, February and March," Fauci said. "We want a smooth process with that and the way you do that is by essentially having the two groups speak to each other and exchange information."
Fauci's comments come as the General Services Administration has not signed off on the Biden transition team's services since the election was called more than a week ago.