U.S. vaccination program chief predicts FDA to grant emergency approval for COVID-19 vaccine

On Sunday, the head of the administration’s “ speed-distorting operation ” vouched for the release of new vaccines and predicted that a government group would grant emergency approval when its meeting on Thursday.

Moncef Slaoui said vaccines could begin to be sent to parts of the American population by the end of the week.

“ I expect them to recommend approval based on the data I’m aware of and have seen the vaccine is very effective, the vaccine is safe, ” he said. Sunday on CNN on “ State of the Union. ”

“ I expect them to recommend approval based on the data that I am aware of and have seen that the vaccine is very effective, the vaccine is safe, ” Moncef Slaoui told CNN Sunday.

“Its safety profile is compared to many other vaccines that have been used for years,” he says. The manufacture of these vaccines is very well done. The build quality is excellent. I frankly expect that they will approve it very quickly, ”he said.

A new vaccine from Pfizer was the first to be urgently approved, with another vaccine from Moderna also seeking emergency approval.

Then he tackled the tough questions of who should get it first, after the FDA decided that medical professionals and nursing home residents should be first.

He raised the question of those who participated in the vaccine trials.

“ I think there are some very important ethical issues that the advisory committee is going to have to discuss, like, for example, should we vaccinate people who have generously participated in clinical trials and were part of the placebo group? says Slaoui. “I think they should be vaccinated, but it’s an important issue that they will have to address. All in all, I really hope they do it quickly and that the vaccine will be available to our population from the end of the week.

FDA panel meets on emergency approval of what would be the first vaccine distributed to Americans on Thursday

In this file photo, a lab technician sorts blood samples for the Covid-19 vaccination study at America’s research centers in Hollywood, Florida August 13, 2020

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said he was “ very concerned ” about the accelerating rate of COVID-19 infections, after a peak around Thanksgiving.

“We are worried about the people and behaviors coming to Christmas. We want to make sure everyone’s loved ones will be there next Christmas, especially when we have so much vaccine hope, ” he told ABC on This Week.

“We have full visibility on our hospital capacity. We make sure they have supplies and regulatory staffing flexibilities that allow the hospital’s most acute patients to remain cared for at home, ”he said, with over 14 million people.

He urged Americans to ‘wear your face masks’ and spoke before ‘wear a mask’ – hours after President Trump held an open-air rally in Georgia where thousands of people gathered and many were not wearing masks.

Azar also hit back at President-elect Joe Biden, who said there was’ no blueprint ‘of how to get the vaccine from a container into a syringe and then into’ the arm from someone ”.

“With all due respect, this is just nonsense,” Azar said.

Coronavirus task force chief Dr Deborah Birx told NBC “ Meet the Press ” Americans need to mask themselves when indoors to contain the spread.

“If you are with someone indoors without a mask, this is an opportunity for viral spread … You cannot come together without a mask in a nearby indoor or outdoor situation,” she said.

“I want to be very frank with the American people. The vaccine is essential, but it will not save us from this current outbreak. Only we can save ourselves from this current push. And we know exactly what to do. So if you have loved ones you want to protect, now you need to follow these guidelines, ”she said.