HHS chief sees vaccine for all Americans by 2Q,
All Americans WASHINGTON — who want to get a COVID-19 vaccine should be able to do so by the second quarter of next year, Health andHuman Services Secretary Alex Azar said.
With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration due to decide as early as Thursday on emergency authorization for a shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, Azar andMoncef Slaoui, the headof the government’s programto accelerate a vaccine, expressed confidence that the FDA would clear the way.
“I’ve not heard of any red flags, but I’ll have to leave that to the career scientists at theFDAwhowere digging through all the data,” Azar said on “FoxNews Sunday.”
“Based on the data that I know, I expect the FDA to make a positive decision,” Slaoui, whoheads theTrump administration’s Operation Warp Speed program, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Plans to roll out vaccines against the coronavirus linked tomore than 280,000 deaths in theU.S. are gaining urgency as cases reach new highs nationwide, straining hospital care and the economy particularly in urban hot spots.
Asked about news reports that the White House and State Department are planing large year-end holiday parties, Azar says the same health recommendations apply to them as in any other setting.
“Our advice remains the same in any context, which is wash your hands, watch your distance, wear face coveringswhen you can’t watch your distance and be careful of those indoor settings,” he said. “The best thing is distance and so certainly limiting the number of people at gatherings also can be important.”
Slaoui said his group plans to have its first meeting with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team this week.
“And I feel confident that oncewe will explain it, everything in detail, I hope the new transition teams will understand that things are well planned,” said Slaoui, a former head of GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s vaccines division.
While the most at-riskpeople in line for early vaccinationmayseeanimpact inJanuary and February, “for our lives to start getting back to normal, we’re talking about April or May,” Slaoui said.
He defendedthe proposed immunization schedule for the first 40million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires two shots three or fourweeks apart. If all of the doseswere used up to give 40 million people an initial shot, that would create the risk of shortfalls for the required second shot, Slaoui said.