Nursing homes could get shots this year

Trumpadministrationofficials Sunday laidout anambitious timetable for the rollout of the first coronavirus vaccine in theUnited States, rebuking President-elect Joe Biden’s criticism that there was “no detailed plan that we’ve seen” for getting people immunized.

Dr. Monclef Slaoui, chief science adviser of Operation Warp Speed, the administration’s program to develop and deploy vaccines, said that residents of long-term care facilities will receive the first roundof vaccinations by mid-January, perhaps even by the end of December. In some states, this group accounts for about 40% of deaths fromthe coronavirus.

The timing assumes the Food and Drug Administration authorizes the vaccine, made by Pfizer, thisweek or shortly thereafter. An advisory committee will meet Thursday to review the data on safety and efficacy.

Iftheagencyauthorizesthe vaccine, distribution could begin as soon as the end of thisweek, Slaoui added. “By end of the month of January, we should already see quite a significant decrease in mortality in the elderly population,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Barring unexpected problems with manufacturing, most Americans at high risk of infection should be vaccinated by mid-March, and the rest of the population by May or June, he added.

Biden sounded a considerably more skeptical note Friday, sayingthattherewas“no detailed plan thatwe’veseen, anyway, as tohowyouget the vaccine out of a container, into an injection syringe, into somebody’s arm.”

Slaoui said his team expected to meet Biden’s advisers thisweek and brief them on details of the plan for vaccine distribution.

Bri t ain has a l ready approved the Pfizer vaccine andexpectstobeginimmunizing its population thisweek. Like the FDA, Europeans are still examining the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.

A second vaccine, made by Moderna, also has been submitted to the FDA for emergency authorization.

Slaoui was optimistic about long-term protection. The elderly or people with compromised immune systemsmight need a booster in three to five years, he said, but for most people the vaccine should remain effective for “many, many years.”