As early as December 11 or 12, the first Americans can be vaccinated against covid-19, says Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of the US vaccination program. Of course, the condition is that the vaccine is approved first.
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On Dec. 10, the US Food and drug administration is considering a possible approval of the corona vaccine that Pfizer has developed together with BioNTech. On Friday, Pfizer had filed for an urgent procedure.
Slaoui estimates that the vaccine will be shipped to the vaccination sites within 24 hours of approval. Each US state will decide individually who gets the vaccine first, but it is generally recommended that health workers and the elderly be given priority (as they are at the highest risk of dying if infected). Two doses of the vaccine are required per person. It would be 95 percent effective.
Pfizer is strongly committed to producing enough to protect 25 million people from the corona virus by the end of this year. To achieve group immunity, about 70 percent of the population must be vaccinated. According to Slaoui, the US can do that by May 2021.
12 million infections
In the US, the milestone of more than 12 million confirmed corona infections was passed on Saturday. This is shown by new figures from Johns Hopkins University. One million new cases were registered in less than a week. More than 255,000 corona deaths have already been reported, experts warn that up to 2,000 deaths could occur every day. The US is the worst hit country worldwide (in absolute numbers).
Health authorities are anxiously looking forward to November 26, when Thanksgiving Day falls. Traditionally, many family and friends parties take place around this period and there is a lot of traveling.
Fair distribution worldwide
In the rest of the world, the G20 promises a fair distribution of the vaccine. The poorest countries will be supported, it says in the final statement of the virtual summit of the Group of Twenty.
“We have mobilized resources to meet immediate financial needs for global health and to support research, development, production and distribution of test materials, treatments and safe vaccines against Covid-19.”
According to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, there is now an urgent need to work on a plan to distribute the vaccines quickly to the poorest countries. Negotiations with the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) are now underway, she said. “I’m concerned we haven’t done anything yet.”
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