As vaccine distribution begins, the Covid-19 pandemic is only getting worse.
On Sunday, the first batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine were loaded onto trucks and cargo planes to be distributed around the United States. Doses of the vaccine, which received an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration on Friday, will be sent to all 50 states, and vaccinations could begin as soon as Monday, FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said Sunday. Nearly 3 million doses will be delivered in the first round of shipments, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on Face The Nation this Sunday. “We’re shipping 2.9 million doses of vaccine,” Azar said. “So whenever they get them in arms, that’s 2.9 million people getting vaccinated.” Azar also said that a second shipment of doses — the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires two separate shots, administered three weeks apart, to be fully effective — would be reserved to ensure those who received the first dose would be able to complete their course. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is estimated to be about 95 percent effective in preventing Covid-19. According to recommendations published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health care workers, as well as essential workers in other industries, and people over the age of 65 or with “underlying medical conditions” that place them in a high-risk category, will be first in line for the vaccine. A committee that advises the CDC has further recommenced that health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities — a group of about 24 million people — be at the very front of the line. Exactly how quickly these at-risk populations will be able to receive the vaccine is not clear, however. On Sunday, Azar said he was optimistic about the initial vaccine distribution. “We could have every nursing home patient vaccinated in the United States by Christmas,” Azar told Brennan, and as many as 20 million people vaccinated by the end of the December. HHS, however, has reportedly offered different guidance, telling health providers to begin vaccinating those in care homes on December 21, which would likely mean that all residents would not be vaccinated by Christmas.
