COVID VACCINE COULD BE HERE DEC. 11
Pfizer hopes for fed OK on Dec. 10, says first dose could be given the next day
As coronavirus continues to spread at alarming rates throughout the country, all eyes are on a vaccine — and the first COVID immunizations could come as soon as Dec. 11, the federal “Vaccine Czar” Dr. Moncef Slaoui said Sunday.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s request for emergency authorization to use its COVID vaccine will be reviewed by a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Dec. 10, he told news outlets.
Pfizer recently announced that its vaccine appears to be 95% effective at preventing mild to severe COVID. Plans are in place to ship the vaccine to states within 24 hours of approval, according to Slaoui.
Each state would get “a quantity of vaccine that’s proportional to their population,” Slaoui said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Asked whether healthcare workers would be prioritized for the vaccine, Slaoui did not directly answer.
But he decried the politics surrounding the vaccine.
“I’m very, very concerned about the hesitancy as it exists,” said Slaoui, who heads the government’s vaccine program, called Operation Warp Speed.
“It’s very unfortunate because this has been exacerbated by the political context under which we have worked very hard with the companies and with the thousands of people that have been involved to make these vaccines available,” he added.
Slaoui told CNN he hopes 70% of Americans will have taken the vaccine by May.
“I really hope and look forward to seeing that the level of negative perception of the vaccine decreases, and people’s acceptance increases,” Slaoui said. “That’s going to be critical to help us. Most people need to be immunized before we can go back to a normal life.”
Gov. Cuomo has strongly criticized the White House’s approach to vaccine distribution, which will rely on hospitals and the private sector.
“The state is coordinating with all the local governments” on distribution, he said at a Sunday press conference.
Cuomo previously threatened to sue the Trump administration over its plans, saying they would perpetuate inequities from the outbreak, which has infected and killed people of color at disproportionately high rates.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on the feds to allocate $11 billion to producing personal protective equipment for New York City, Long Island and beyond.
“The recent surge in cases — and looming PPE shortages — might bring us all back to, or beyond, the peak levels we saw earlier this year,” he said in a Sunday statement. “We must do everything in our power to avoid a repeat of the widespread PPE shortages, particularly N-95 mask[s], gowns and more.”
The comments came as COVID continues to rage throughout the country. The number of cases passed 12 million over the weekend with over 34,000 total deaths, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University.
That marked an increase of
over 1 million cases in just a week, according to CNN, which noted nearly every state has reported abrupt spikes.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, called the vaccine “an incentive to have us double down even more with public health measures until we get the full component of the help that’s on its way.”
“Traditionally and historically, highly efficacious and effective vaccines have crushed epidemics like smallpox and polio and measles,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” We can do that with the vaccines that are going to be coming online.”
The Group of 20 summit featuring leaders from the world’s most powerful countries concluded Sunday with a call to make COVID vaccines available to all.
“We will spare no effort to ensure their affordable and equitable access for all people, consistent with members’ commitments to incentivize innovation,” the group said in a statement.
During the summit, which took place virtually, the group said members pledged more than $21 billion “to support the development and distribution of needed diagnostic tools, therapeutics, and vaccines, and enhance health systems.”
In the U.S., President Trump has largely deferred to states and localities on responding to the outbreak. He has mostly stopped attending to the duties of his office since Joe Biden was widely called as the winner of the presidential election on Nov. 7.
Over the weekend, the feds authorized the emergency use of the same antibody drug Trump received when he contracted coronavirus last month.
The drug from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which the Food and Drug Administration approved on Saturday, is intended to prevent hospitalization and mitigate the disease in patients with mild or moderate symptoms.
Emergency authorization means the drug can be used while studies about its effectiveness continue.