US approval of Covid-19 shots could boost vaccination numbers, Fauci says

Top US infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Friday he hopes regulators as soon as next month could start granting full approval for the COVID-19 vaccines, a move he said could spur unvaccinated Americans to get the shots.

The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna two-dose vaccines and Johnson & Johnson's one-dose shot are currently being administered under emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Full approval by the FDA could push more Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine as it might reduce their fears about the safety of the shot and make local officials more comfortable about implementing vaccine mandates, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the White House, said in an interview with Reuters.