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CDC Director Robert Redfield said rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine will begin in the second week of December – as the HHS says, states will have the ‘final say’ on who gets the first doses
- CDC director Dr Robert Redfield said he sees the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine rolled out in the second week of December
- HHS officials also announced on Tuesday that 6.4 million shot doses of Pfizer will be released in their first distribution once approved urgently.
- FDA Advisory Board to Meet to Discuss Whether to Grant Emergency Use Clearance for Pfizer’s Vaccine on December 10
- Operation Warp Speed says ready to launch vaccine within 24 hours of emergency approval
- Speaking at Fox’s daily briefing, Dr Redfield also said household gatherings were fueling the latest wave of coronavirus cases
- The Health and Human Services Secretary also said on Tuesday that states would have the ‘last word’ which should be the first priority to get vaccinated
Coronavirus vaccines will likely start rolling out in the United States by the second week of December, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr Robert Redfield predicted on Tuesday.
U.S. officials also said on Tuesday that they plan to release 6.4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine nationwide in an initial distribution after the first was cleared by regulators for emergency use. .
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Vaccines Committee will meet on December 10 to decide whether to grant emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s vaccine, which was 95% effective in clinical tests.
Officials with the government program Operation Warp Speed told reporters that states and other jurisdictions were briefed on their estimated vaccine allocations on Friday in early shipments so they could begin planning how best to distribute them to their communities. high risk populations.
Officials had previously said they expected 40 million doses to be distributed by the end of the year, a figure they reiterated on Tuesday.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar told a press briefing on Tuesday that it is the states that will have the “ final say ” on who should be vaccinated first: officers health workers, the elderly, other essential workers, or those with underlying health conditions. that put them in danger of dying from COVID-19.
Dr Robert Redfield has said the first batch of coronavirus vaccines will likely be rolled out in the United States from the second week of December
“It’s exceptional that we have these vaccines and it’s very exciting,” said Dr Redfield.
But it’s a reason, he said, to maintain social distancing and mask wearing over the past few weeks before the shootings begin to roll across the country.
“You don’t want to be the last group to end up having Covid,” he says.
“Because they’ll probably start deploying the second week of December.”
Most experts, as well as scattered members and boards of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) suggest that the vaccine will likely be deployed to healthcare workers first.
Dr Redfield said the opposite, although ACIP’s recommendations probably weigh more heavily in the final decision than Dr Redfield’s opinion.
First, there will likely be “residents of nursing homes, and then a combination of health care providers and people at high risk of serious consequences,” he said.
He predicted that the United States would be able to distribute 40 million doses of the early vaccine by the end of the year (enough to vaccinate 20 million people at risk).
But he predicts that the volume of doses pumped in each subsequent wave will only increase through January, February and beyond.
While there are fears that Pfizer’s vaccines may need to be stored in extremely cold temperatures (-94 degrees F), Operation Warp Speed assured reporters that this pharmaceutical giant has developed a viable solution using dry ice.
It comes as millions of Americans ignore the CDC’s advice against Thanksgiving travel and soar over the country, leading Dr.Anthony Fauci to warn that 43,000 Americans could die from the coronavirus before Christmas.
HHS officials said on Tuesday they were ready to distribute 6.4 million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine in the first wave of its rollout as soon as the vaccine gets its planned emergency approval from the FDA on next month.
Dr Redfield also said these types of household gatherings – not schools – were fueling the latest surge in coronavirus cases during his Tuesday interview on the Daily Briefing on Fox.
Pfizer filed the first U.S. Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for a COVID-19 vaccine last week after releasing its test data.
Pfizer, which developed its vaccine with its German partner BioNTech SE and others involved in vaccine shipping and handling, have started dry trials to ensure the distribution infrastructure is functioning properly, said the responsibles.
U.S. states and territories are responsible for how the coronavirus vaccine will be distributed to their populations.
Drug makers, along with federal officials, will ship their vaccines to these jurisdictions, but governors are expected to determine how best to distribute them in their states.
States have developed individual plans that prioritize who will be among the first to receive doses of vaccine as they become available.
Many states have said they plan to vaccinate frontline healthcare workers and nursing home residents on their first attempt.
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