Fauci Says This Many People Need To Be Vaccinated For Life To Return To Normal

Doses of the COVID-19 vaccine continue to be administered around the country and we finally have an estimate for how many people need to receive it before life can return to normal.

The nation's leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci went on CNN Tuesday night and said 75-80% of Americans need to be vaccinated for us to return to our normal lives, and unfortunately, we're not very close. 

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2% Of Americans have been vaccinated so far. 

But while the number of currently vaccinated Americans remains low, Fauci is hopeful the country could reach that number by late summer into early fall.

As of Wednesday morning, 26,440,836 Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while just 6,064,792 have gotten the second dose.* 

The push to get vaccines out and administered quickly continues as experts warn of new virus variants across the world that could cause another rapid increase in cases. 

CNN reports a surge of the U.K. variant is likely to occur in the next six to 14 weeks.

"If you stop their replication by vaccinating widely and not giving the virus an open playing field to continue to respond to the pressures that you put on it, you will not get mutations," Fauci said during a virtual news briefing. 

*This article has been updated. 

The CDC has a robust website with all the latest information on the vaccine and can answer any questions you may have. Click here for more information.