Infectious disease expert Fauci calls US vaccine rollout 'disappointing'

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National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci on Thursday said that the coronavirus vaccine rollout hasn't gone as he expected adding that it has been 'disappointing'.

"We would have liked to have seen it run smoothly and have 20 million doses into people today by the end of 2020, which was the projection," Fauci said during an appearance on "Today", as quoted by The Hill and added, "Obviously, it didn't happen, and that's disappointing."

The outgoing US President Donald Trump's administration had touted a goal of getting 20 million people the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year but it was reported that the actual number will fall far short of that mark.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID data tracker stated that about 2.8 million people have received their first vaccine dose as of Thursday.

The US infectious diseases expert hopes that the vaccine distribution will increase in January but that local municipalities will need support in order for that to happen.

"There really has to be a lot more effort in the sense of resources for the locals, namely, the states, the cities, the counties, the places where the vaccine is actually going into the arms of individuals," he said.

Fauci continues to remain optimistic even though cases across the United States are rising and most recently a case of the newly strain of COVID was found in the US.

"The good news is that science has and will come to the rescue getting us vaccines," he said. "More than one vaccine, hopefully, five, six, seven or more vaccines throughout the world, that will get us out of this and put this in the rear-view mirror, behind us.