Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, said President-elect Joe Biden's commitment to administer 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines within his first 100 days in office is achievable.

“All you need to do ... is go into the trenches, go into the hospitals, go into the intensive care units, and see what is happening. Those are real numbers, real people and real deaths,” Fauci said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

During the interview, Fauci also blasted President Donald Trump for claiming that COVID-19 cases in the country have been hugely exaggerated.

Fauci said he is witnessing “some little glimmer of hope” after 1.5 million doses were administered in the previous 72 hours. He said this is an average of 500,000 per day. The figure brings the total to 4 million.

While he cited the latest milestone, Dr. Fauci lamented that the country failed to meet its objective of distributing 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of 2020.

“There have been a couple of glitches. That’s understandable,” Fauci said. “We are not where we want to be, there’s no doubt about that.”

However, he expressed hope that the country will gain momentum by January. He said this is because Biden's "goal of vaccinating 100 million people in the first 100 days is a realistic goal.”

On Sunday, President Donald Trump tweeted that the global pandemic has been “far exaggerated.” He railed against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over its “ridiculous” methodology.

He said, “The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of @CDCgov’s ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low. “When in doubt, call it Covid.” Fake News!”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1345720107255926784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1345720107255926784%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wqad.com%2Farticle%2Fnews%2Fhealth%2Fcoronavirus%2Fvaccine%2Ffauci-coronavirus-vaccines-glimmer-hope%2F507-42d0c061-b3f1-4428-91a1-b29e02c77942

He also blasted the mainstream media for crediting Fauci despite the infectious disease expert “working for me and the Trump Administration, and I am in no way given any credit for my work."

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1345749709592342530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1345749709592342530%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wqad.com%2Farticle%2Fnews%2Fhealth%2Fcoronavirus%2Fvaccine%2Ffauci-coronavirus-vaccines-glimmer-hope%2F507-42d0c061-b3f1-4428-91a1-b29e02c77942

Fauci earlier said aid attaining herd immunity against COVID-19 requires the vaccination of around 90% of the U.S. population.

Dr. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and serves as chief medical adviser to President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden.

-----------

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.