Bill Gates, who's spending hundreds of millions of dollars to supply poor countries with effective COVID-19 vaccines, believes the U.S. might be on its way back to a pre-pandemic normal by spring 2021.
The U.S. posted a record single-day high in new cases with 200,174, hospitalizations at more than 100,000 and 3,000 deaths as a result of the autumn surge. One American died every 30 seconds from the disease Wednesday, based on a CNBC analysis.
There were also 1.14 million cases in the past seven days and 13.8 million total cases since the pandemic began, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gates believes with promising vaccines and therapeutic treatments close at hand, the U.S. might well be on track for a return to "normal" within the first six months of 2021.
"By the spring, the numbers of vaccinated Americans will be large enough that certainly in the U.S. will start to change for us dramatically and we'll be headed back to normal."
Gates said advances in treatments such as monoclonal antibodies and the rollout of "amazing vaccines" will also help.
Americans will this month have access to vaccines from Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna, Inc.
Both have filed for emergency use authorization with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer's vaccine was cleared for emergency use in the UK on Wednesday and is expected to roll out next week.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state expected enough doses to vaccinate 170,000 people by Dec. 15. Both vaccines are given in two doses at least 20 days apart.
The vaccines from Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna appear to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 - but only if both doses are taken.
By April healthy young people with no underlying conditions will be able to "walk into a CVS or to a Walgreens and get vaccinated," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Former administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC he's "hopeful" there will be an adequate vaccine supply in 2021.
"The supply ramps very quickly as you move out and the more you push out that timeframe into 2021 by a week or two weeks, you have less supply in 2020," noted Gottlieb.
"I'm hopeful that we're going to have adequate supply in 2021 and it's going to ramp very quickly, but hopefully these do get into the market this year."
