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With the rollout of the BioNTech-Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, Dr. Anthoy Fauci on Monday said the country could achieve “herd immunity” by late spring or early summer.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told MSNBC that depending on the "efficiency of the rollout," the COVID-19 vaccines should be widely available to most of the American population by spring.

“I believe if we’re efficient about it and we convince people to get vaccinated, we can accomplish that by the end of the second quarter of early 2021, namely by the end of the late spring [or] early summer," he said.

https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1338526595414421513 According to the World Health Organization, herd immunity, which is also known as population immunity, is a concept in which a population can be protected from a certain virus if a threshold of vaccination is reached. Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it.

The U.S. needs to vaccinate 75-80% of its population

Fauci previously said about 75 percent to 80 percent of the U.S. population would need to be vaccinated to reach the level of herd immunity.

Fauci expressed high hopes that by late spring or early summer, the U.S. will attain "that umbrella of herd immunity."

"By the time we get to the fall, we can start approaching some degree of relief where the level of infection will be so low in society we can start essentially approaching some form of normality," he said.

Fauci also predicted that Americans without underlying conditions will begin to get the vaccine at the end of March or the start of April. “It’s really going to depend on the efficiency of the rollout,” Fauci said. A critical care nurse in New York became the first person in the United States to receive the  COVID-19 vaccine on Monday. Outgoing President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden both expressed elation over the key milestone in the fight against the pandemic. Within a three-week period, the vaccine program popularly known as Operation Warp should be able to distribute the vaccine to all vaccination sites identified by states, such as healthcare facilities and local pharmacies. ---------------------------------------- Have a story you want USA Herald to cover? Submit a tip here and if we think it's newsworthy, we'll follow up on it. Want to contribute a story? We also accept article submissions – check out our writer's guidelines here.