Throughout the world, millions of people are finding themselves watching and waiting for the day when they can secure their doses of one of the vaccines that would protect them against COVID-19.
Indeed, it came as a great relief to many that multiple vaccines exist at all and were found to be not only safe , but still effective against the coronavirus mutations discovered in the U.K. and South Africa. Nonetheless, there’s only so much peace of mind one can have when they have no access to a vaccine, particularly in light of how much destruction the virus waged in January.
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But one recent announcement at least gives Americans some idea of when that access will come for them and reassures them that there should be enough for everyone.
While touring the National Institutes of Health on February 11, President Joe Biden announced that the nation has finalized deals to acquire 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines made available by Pfizer and Moderna.
As NPR reported , this move increases the likelihood of achieving his administration’s plan to have 300 million Americans vaccinated by mid-July.
In the president’s words, “We’ve now purchased enough vaccine supplies to vaccinate all Americans. Now we’re working to get those vaccines into the arms of millions of people.”
These new deals serve to supplement existing ones that saw both firms agree to provide 400 million doses to 200 million Americans.
According to The Washington Post , the government was able to put in their additional order using options that already existed in the contracts that Moderna and Pfizer negotiated with the Trump administration.
But while the former president’s officials expected this delivery to occur by the summer, Biden has since announced that some of the doses in question will arrive sooner than expected and the 400 million dose payload should be available by the end of May.
Part of the reason for this jump ahead in scheduling could be the Biden administration’s move to expand Pfizer’s priority rating under the Defense Production Act.
As The Washington Post reported, this law drafted during the Korean War makes it easier for Pfizer to access equipment needed to ramp up production of their vaccine.
Aside from the boost from this legislation, Pfizer representative Amy Rose said that increased familiarity with the process of manufacturing their vaccine has given the firm the expectation that they will be able to halve its production time, which has potential positive implications for the global availability of the vaccine.
This comes at a time when parts of the country are experiencing shortages of existing COVID-19 vaccine supplies.
According to The Washington Post , this is despite the government’s move to increase state vaccine allocations by 30% and is particularly pronounced in Los Angeles, where Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that a mass vaccination site at Dodger Stadium would temporarily close due to insufficient supplies.
Although infections and hospitalizations are starting to decline, Biden has said “We remain in the teeth of this pandemic,” especially in light of the fact that January was its deadliest month so far with over 100,000 Americans losing their lives to the virus.
But while this new deal and the efficiency successes the vaccine makers have reported won’t allay this issue right away, their effects should be noticable in the coming months.
As National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “By the time we get to April, that will be what I would call [. . .] ‘open season,’ namely, virtually everybody and anybody in any category could start to get vaccinated.”
And judging by Biden’s statements as reported by NPR, the infrastructure for administering those vaccines when they arrive has also ramped up with over 1,000 federal staff members deployed throughout the country over the last three weeks alone.
The government’s expanded deal will also mean the nation won’t have to rely on the possibility that the single-dose vaccine created by Johnson & Johnson will meet federal approval.
Nonetheless, The Washington Post reported that if the application the company submitted earlier this month goes through, this vaccine should be able to bolster existing supplies by the spring.
This will be particularly crucial if the current pool of 260 million Americans eligible for the vaccine expands following upcoming clinical trials that would involve children as young as 12.
h/t: NPR , The Washington Post
