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Although more contagious variants are spreading in the United States, senior health officials on Sunday issued optimistic notes that the vaccine supply and vaccination rate would rise steadily.
“Demand is clearly outstripping supply right now,” said Dr Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease physician, as part of NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.
“I can tell you that things will improve, as we will from February to March, in April, as the number of vaccine doses that will be available will increase dramatically.”
The number of shots administered daily in the United States has increased in recent times. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 2.2 million doses were given on Saturday and 1.6 million on Friday. That brought the latest seven-day average to 1.4 million per day, which comes close to President Biden’s new target of 1.5 million shots per day.
In addition, the supply of vaccines – although still far below demand – is increasing. Federal officials recently increased shipments to the states to 10.5 million doses per week, as Moderna and Pfizer gradually ramp up production. The two companies have reached deals to deliver the United States a total of 400 million doses – enough to immunize 200 million people – by the summer.
Pfizer recently said it will now deliver its doses two months ahead of schedule, by May, in part because it now has an extra dose in every vial it makes. And Moderna is considering a production change that would allow it to increase the number of doses in its vials from 10 to 15.
Officials are also counting on the Food and Drug Administration to clear a single dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson later this month. Although this company will initially supply the United States only a few million doses, it is expected to increase production significantly by April. Other vaccines from Novavax and AstraZeneca could also be authorized in the United States in the spring, which will further increase the supply.
Officials are rushing to vaccinate as many people as possible in order to overtake the more contagious variants of the virus that were first identified in Britain and South Africa. The British variant, known as B.1.1.7, is spreading rapidly in the United States, with its prevalence doubling about every 10 days, according to a new study. The CDC has said it could become the dominant form of the virus in the United States by March.
While this variant is worrisome because it is more transmissible than previous variants, vaccine developers are more concerned with a variant discovered in South Africa known as B.1.351 because it appears to make current vaccines less effective. . Several manufacturers have said they are solving the problem by developing new versions of their vaccines, which could serve as boosters. The Food and Drug Administration said it is working on a plan to authorize these new versions of vaccines.
The developers of the vaccine AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford said on Sunday that they expected a modified version of their vaccine to be available by the fall.
On the CBS “Face the Nation” program, Dr Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner and Pfizer board member, said on Sunday that he believed it would be possible to develop a booster that “bakes in. many variations. that we see. “
“I think there is a reasonable chance that we can stay ahead of this virus,” he said.
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