“My primary biggest fear is that a substantial proportion of the people will be hesitant to get vaccinated,” Fauci said. “I think there are going to be many people who don’t want to get vaccinated right away. But once you get, you know, tens of millions of people vaccinated, it looks like it’s working and it’s safe, then I think we’ll win over a large proportion of the rest of the population, who might have some hesitancy about getting vaccinated.”…

“That’s the reason why we’ve got to make sure we get the health care workers the proper information,” Fauci said. “What is the reason that they’re hesitant? They think it went too fast? It was certainly the fastest we’ve ever approved the vaccine. But the speed is related to the extraordinary scientific advances in platform technology from vaccines that allowed us to do things in months that would have formerly taken several years. If you give them that information and explain it clearly to them then I think they will go along with getting vaccinated. If it doesn’t, then I think we’re going to be in a little bit of trouble.”

The problem, Fauci said, is that if heaps of health-care workers choose not to take the vaccine, then the rest of the population could be hesitant to get immunized. And that would only prolong the time it would take for the country to get back on track.