First Americans could get COVID-19 vaccine by mid-December, top health official says

[webfact]

First Americans could get COVID-19 vaccine by mid-December, top health official says

By Doina Chiacu

 

FILE PHOTO: A healthcare worker prepares specimen collection tubes at a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) drive-thru testing location in Houston, Texas, U.S., November 20, 2020. REUTERS/Adrees Latif/File Photo

 

(Reuters) - The first Americans could receive a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as 24 hours after the FDA grants approval, which would kick off the largest inoculation campaign in U.S. history starting in mid-December.

 

"Within 24 hours from the approval, the vaccine will be moving and located in the areas where each state will have told us where they want the vaccine doses," Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for the government's "Operation Warp Speed" vaccine program, told NBC's "Meet the Press."

 

The effort to roll out vaccines across the country of 330 million people comes as President Donald Trump has blocked the normal transition of government before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20.

 

Slaoui said he hoped for a smooth transition and did not expect the vaccination effort to be derailed.

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's outside advisers will meet on Dec. 10 to discuss whether to authorize the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech for emergency use.

 

Moderna Inc is expected to seek approval later in December for its COVID-19 vaccine.

 

Vaccines will be distributed based on each state's population, Slaoui said. Each state will decide who gets the vaccine first with the recommendation that priority be given to health care workers, front-line workers and the elderly who face the highest risks of dying from the virus.

 

About 70% of the population needs to be immunized to achieve herd immunity, a goal the country could reach by May, he said.

 

As new COVID-19 cases continue to surge, millions of Americans are ignoring federal and state warnings to stay home for Thanksgiving to prevent overwhelming already strained hospitals.

 

Many people are trying to get tested before the holiday on Thursday, leading to long lines in New York City and elsewhere.

 

Testing shortages still plague many parts of the country with most pharmacies offering COVID-19 tests in suburban Chicago were fully booked ahead of Thanksgiving and long lines at state drive-through testing facilities.

 

"We're clearly involved now in a very, very difficult surge here throughout the United States and even globally," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, told NBC.

 

Last week Biden called the vaccination program a "massive undertaking" and "one of the greatest challenges we will face as a nation."

 

The United States must distribute tens of millions of vaccines while also combating misinformation about vaccines spread on social media.

 

A recent Gallup poll showed only 58% of Americans would get the vaccine, up from 50% in September.

 

Incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said it was crucial to have a seamless flow of information between Trump's coronavirus experts and Biden's transition team to avoid delays in distribution after Biden takes office on Jan. 20.

 

Biden warned last week that "more people will die if we don't coordinate."

 

The number of U.S. coronavirus cases has surpassed 12 million and rose by more than 1 million cases in less than a week for the first time.

 

(Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi)

 

Deaths have topped 255,000 with many health experts warning deaths will rise to over 2,000 a day in the coming weeks.

 

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Will Dunham; Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

 

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-23

 

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[Don Chance]

Gates says by summer things will be back to normal. With China, Russia, USA, lots of vaccines will be available. Probably by March travel will open up again.

[simple1]

3 minutes ago, Don Chance said:

Gates says by summer things will be back to normal. With China, Russia, USA, lots of vaccines will be available. Probably by March travel will open up again.

 

Naturally timing is subject to allocation of volume of units available and resources for wealthy countries, not so for the poorer nations as the wealthy counties have forward purchased available production.

 

https://www.dw.com/en/g20-angela-merkel-worried-over-affordable-covid-19-vaccine-rollout/a-55694311

[Scott]

Troll post reported and removed. 

[greenhornfarang]

3 hours ago, Don Chance said:

Gates says by summer things will be back to normal. With China, Russia, USA, lots of vaccines will be available. Probably by March travel will open up again.

 

This is a wet dream. In reality, this vaccine will never reach the masses as its way too expensive, and there could be more covid mutations/vriations/evolutions requiring new vaccines and if we react the same way for every bug the then there is no end to this.

[camble]

24 minutes ago, greenhornfarang said:

 

This is a wet dream. In reality, this vaccine will never reach the masses as its way too expensive, and there could be more covid mutations/vriations/evolutions requiring new vaccines and if we react the same way for every bug the then there is no end to this.

 

The United States must distribute tens of millions of vaccines while also combating misinformation about vaccines spread on social media.

[Eric Loh]

It's heartwarming to know that rich countries and individuals have not forgotten the countries that can ill afford the enormous vaccine costs for their population except for USA under Trump. It is shameful for USA to turn their back and not contributed to the CEPI and WHO lead initiative called COVAX which is aiming to support the distribution of vaccines to the poorer nations. Trump is not even with this global coronavirus vaccine effort and has not even paid the debts USA owe to WHO. He is such a disgrace to the rich tradition of US as a world leader. 

Edited November 23, 2020 by Eric Loh
grammar correction

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

About 70% of the population needs to be immunized to achieve herd immunity, a goal the country could reach by May, he said.

 

I think this OP article, or the people being quoted, are a wee bit overoptimistic about the prospects for that in the U.S., for a couple reasons.

 

1. The first vaccine out of the gate, from Pfizer, has the requirement of being kept VERY cold, beyond just refrigeration. And there simply isn't any kind of mass infrastructure across the country at present to support a broad distribution in that manner, AFAIK.

 

2. The scientist talking about the notion of getting 70% of the population vaccinated by this coming May (6 months away) seems to be forgetting about the large segment of the U.S. population under Trump that are CV deniers, anti-vaxers, conspiracy theory believers, etc etc...

 

So there's probably already a significant portion of the U.S. population that won't get vaccinated at all, regardless of how many vaccines are approved or how well or poorly they may be distributed. Among them, probably a lot of the folks who held their face mask burning party in a Republican part of Southern California the other day.

 

[Oxx]

6 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

So there's probably already a significant portion of the U.S. population that won't get vaccinated at all, regardless of how many vaccines are approved

 

Don't worry.  They're going to die off, leaving the 70% behind (and alive).

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

For those who haven't been following the Pfizer vaccine details closely:

 

Quote

Pfizer may win the COVID vaccine race. But distributing it could be another matter.

Needing deep-freeze storage could complicate a massive rollout.

...

That's because Pfizer's vaccine can't be stored in the refrigeration systems found at the typical doctor's office. Instead, it requires special ultra-low-temperature freezers that can store medicine at approximately 94 degrees below zero.

 

The delivery system is complex, requiring the use of a custom-built "cool box" that can store 1,000 to 5,000 vaccines for up to 10 days at minus 94 degrees.

...

"The complexities of this plan for vaccine storage and handling will have major impact in our ability to efficiently deliver the vaccine," said [Dr. Nancy] Messonnier, [director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases], speaking at the same meeting.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/pfizer-win-covid-vaccine-race-distributing-matter/story?id=72862724

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[placeholder]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I think this OP article, or the people being quoted, are a wee bit overoptimistic about the prospects for that in the U.S., for a couple reasons.

 

1. The first vaccine out of the gate, from Pfizer, has the requirement of being kept VERY cold, beyond just refrigeration. And there simply isn't any kind of mass infrastructure across the country at present to support a broad distribution in that manner, AFAIK.

There's plenty of infrastructure to support the provision of dry ice when needed.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, placeholder said:

There's plenty of infrastructure to support the provision of dry ice when needed.

 

https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/09/04/covid-vaccine-dry-ice-shortage

 

Quote

 

About 50,000 pounds of dry ice arrives at Acme Dry Ice in Cambridge every morning these days. Three hours later it’s gone.

“I can’t get ahead,” says Acme owner Marc Savenor. “I’ve been doing this for 42 years and I’ve never seen it like this, ever.”

 

 

And that report was from back in Sept... before any actual rollout of the vaccine to the public had even started (which hasn't yet happened even as of today).

 

And here's CNN on that subject from just this week:

 

Quote

The world's now scrambling for dry ice. It's just one headache in getting coronavirus vaccines where they need to go

...

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine needs to be kept at around -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit) while it's transported. That's 50 degrees Celsius colder than any other vaccine currently used.

...

But shipping such a vaccine can pose big challenges. Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, assistant director of the Pan American Health Organization, told CNN that "the rural and the urban areas in any country in the world are not ready to manage this vaccine today."

"So, who is prepared in the world? No one."

One issue is the availability of dry ice.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/21/world/coronavirus-vaccine-dry-ice-intl/index.html

 

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[John Drake]

4 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

It's heartwarming to know that rich countries and individuals have not forgotten the countries that can ill afford the enormous vaccine costs for their population except for USA under Trump. It is shameful for USA to turn their back and not contributed to the CEPI and WHO lead initiative called COVAX which is aiming to support the distribution of vaccines to the poorer nations. Trump is not even with this global coronavirus vaccine effort and has not even paid the debts USA owe to WHO. He is such a disgrace to the rich tradition of US as a world leader. 

 

Why should the US worry about getting the vaccine to countries like Thailand, which has already cut its deal with AstraZeneca and the UK?

[Sujo]

The arguments on here are proof positive that trump should be letting the biden admin get the info so that they can organise getting the vaccine out.

 

Refusing to give them that info will cause delays and cost lives. Trump has blood on his very small, tiny hands.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Came across this interesting chart in the news today, showing the expectation of which of the various vaccines are going to be used in different parts of the world, and the manufacturer prices associated with each:

 

 

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3638538-all-eyes-on-astrazeneca-oxford-shot-after-strong-pfizer-moderna-results

 

Looks like Pfizer, Moderna and Sanofi are expected to be the Big 3 in the U.S., but probably AstraZeneca here in Thailand.

 

Quote

Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccine also showed a strong immune response in older adults in Phase-2 clinical. Findings from the final stage of AZN's vaccine studies are due to be released shortly.

 

 

[teacherofwoe]

Have a good trip