The United States hopes to begin coronavirus vaccinations in early December, a top government health official said Sunday (Nov 22), the latest positive news to emerge even as cases surge across the worst-hit nation and elsewhere around the globe.
The beginning of vaccinations could be a crucial shift in the battle against a virus that has claimed more than 1.4 million lives worldwide, including 255,000 just in the U.S., since emerging from China late last year.
Encouraging results from vaccine trials have bolstered hopes for an end to the pandemic, as nations reimpose restrictions and lockdowns that slowed the spread earlier this year but turned lives and economies upside down across the globe.
Two leading vaccine candidates – one by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech and another by U.S. firm Moderna – have been shown to be 95 percent effective in trials, and Pfizer has already applied for emergency use approval from U.S. health authorities.
“Our plan is to be able to ship vaccines to the immunization sites within 24 hours of approval” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Moncef Slaoui, head of the US government virus vaccine effort, told CNN, pointing to possible dates of Dec 11-12.
FDA vaccine advisors will meet Dec 10 to discuss approval.
Slaoui estimated that 20 million people across the U.S. could be vaccinated in December, with 30 million per month after that.
But top U.S. infectious disease official Anthony Fauci, who said “maybe 20 million people will be able to get vaccinated by the middle to the end of December,” warned the situation could get worse before getting better if people fail to take precautions in the coming holiday season.
“We’re in a very difficult situation at all levels,” he told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
(Compiled)
