VIRGINIA (WDVM) — Since March of last year, the Facts & Faith Fridays group led by the director of VCU Massey Cancer Center and the African American clergy in Virginia has been meeting weekly to address the impact of the pandemic on the Black community. Friday, thousands joined to listen to two key guest speakers, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Governor Ralph Northam to address key concerns about the vaccine and bring updates.

According to Dr. Fauci, if this many people get vaccinated, we may see more normalcy soon, “That should be somewhere between 70 and 85% to get what we call herd immunity, where the virus doesn’t have any room to go anywhere because most everybody, not everybody, but most everybody is protected,” said Dr. Fauci.

Here’s his prediction on when that may happen.

“So let’s say we start getting through the priority groups in February, March, April…April we start open-season, anybody can get vaccinated and we vaccinate efficiently and effectively in May, June, July, August. I believe by the time we get to the fall, if, and it’s a big if that you have to underline, if we get that overwhelming majority of people vaccinated, I think we can start approaching a reasonable degree of normality toward to mid-fall of 2021,” stated Dr. Fauci.

Dr. Fauci also stressed the importance of the Black and Brown community receiving the vaccine as there is a predisposition to severe COVID-19 disease among those populations.

Governor Northam said he has no hesitation about taking that vaccine and addressed many people’s concerns.

“I want to be clear, that while the vaccines have been developed quickly, that is because the smartest and most talented scientists have worked around the clock, and because governments have reduced red tape, no one has cut any corners,” expressed Northam.

Good news for Virginia, more vaccines are on the way.

“We expect to see our weekly allocation of vaccines ramp up as production increases. This week I announced an initial goal of 25,000 vaccinations a day and we expect to increase that goal as we get more supply,” said Northam.

It’s still going to take time to have vaccinations ready for 8.5 million Virginians but Northam said, “We’re committed to getting there as expeditiously and equitably as possible.”

For more information and vaccine updates in Virginia, click here.