Biden to use defense production law to increase supply of Covid-19 vaccines and tests

Earlier today, Virginia became the third state to report a case of a variant first found in South Africa that spreads faster than previous versions of the virus and makes vaccines less effective.

“Viruses will not evolve and mutate if you don’t give them an open playing field to replicate and replicate in essentially unbridled ways,” Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease specialist, said on Friday, during a White House briefing on Covid-19. .

Biden’s team spent their first weeks in office trying to tame the chaotic vaccine rollout in the country, find ways to increase the country’s limited vaccine supply, and develop a strategy to deal with the threat of new variants.

Friday’s announcements represent the most detailed look yet at how the administration plans to use the DPA, which allows the government to place priority orders with manufacturers.

Biden’s team plans to sign DPA contracts with six diagnostic companies in the coming weeks to increase availability of tests Americans can use at home. Finalizing the contracts will take a few more weeks, said Tim Manning, the president’s supply chain coordinator for coronaviruses, who declined to name the companies that will produce the tests.

The administration also aims to boost the country’s supply of essential personal protective equipment such as surgical gloves, which are scarce. The administration plans to expand domestic manufacturing of gloves in the United States by building factories to manufacture the raw materials and the gloves themselves. About 1 billion nitrile gloves could be made per month by the end of the year, Manning estimated.

And the White House is using DPA to give Pfizer priority access to two components it needs to make its Covid-19 vaccine, Manning said. The company and its German partner, BioNTech, manufacture one of two vaccines licensed in the United States.

Production issues have shattered hopes that Johnson & Johnson’s single-injection coronavirus vaccine, currently under review by the Food and Drug Administration, could boost supply in the small team. The agency is expected to allow the use of the shot later this month, but initial stocks will be lower than the White House hoped, said Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to Biden’s Covid-19 response team .

“As is the case with other vaccines, we haven’t found that the level of manufacture allows us to have as many vaccines as we think we need to come out of the gate,” Slavitt said. He refused to provide details of specific actions that could be taken, stating instead that “all options are on the table to determine how to expedite manufacturing in the event the FDA approves the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.”

So far, states have received around 57 million vaccines against the coronavirus, although federal data shows only around 35 million have been administered. Part of this discrepancy is likely due to delays in reporting immunizations. But state and federal officials have also urged healthcare providers not to hold second doses in reserve, as vaccine shipments are more predictable than they were in the first weeks of the campaign. vaccination of the country.