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Director of the US Centers for Disease Control says wearing a mask may be better than vaccine

Posted at 11:26 AM, Sep 19, 2020
and last updated 2020-09-19 14:26:22-04

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Wearing a face mask might provide better protection against COVID-19 than a vaccine, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during Wednesday's Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

"I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID-19 than when I take a COVID-19 vaccine, because the immunogenicity may be 70% and if I don't get an immune response, the vaccine is not going to protect me. This face mask will," Redfield explained, adding that the American public has not yet embraced the use of face masks to a level that could effectively control the outbreak.

"So I do want to keep asking the American public to take the responsibility, particularly the 18 to 25 year-olds where we're seeing the outbreak in America continue to go like this," Redfield said.

Dr. Robert Redfield, said during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that he thinks it will be the late second quarter or third quarter of 2021 before a COVID-19 vaccine is generally available to the American public.

When asked when he thought there would be a vaccine ready to administer to the American public, Redfield said he thought that there would be vaccine initially available sometime between November and December, but “very limited supply and will have to be prioritized.”

Redfield said that he thought the vaccination would begin in November and December “and then will pick up, and it will be in a prioritized way. It will be those first responders and those at greatest risk for death, and then eventually that will expand.”