Moncef Slaoui, the co-leader and chief advisor of the U.S. government's Operation Warp Speed coronavirus vaccine initiative, outlined on December 2 the most ambitious timeline for vaccinating Americans against COVID-19.
Slaoui predicted that 100 million Americans would be immunized by the end of February 2021. The target is to vaccinate around 20 million Americans by December 2020. In January 2021, 30 million Americans will follow, and in February 2021, around 50 million Americans are set to be vaccinated.
100 million Americans
The former pharmaceutical executive said in a press briefing that by then, they would have potentially immunized 100 million people in the country. That is more or less the size of the significant at-risk population: the elderly, the children, the healthcare workers, the first-line workers, and those who have pre-existing conditions.
Slaoui based his prediction on the anticipated vaccine supplies from Moderna and Pfizer, two companies that are vaccine frontrunners, according to CNBC.
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Neither vaccine has yet received a go-signal from U.S. regulators. Both companies have submitted their application and research to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the FDA for evaluation.
Slaoui was a former pharmaceutical industry executive, and President Trump picked him in May 2020 to guide the country's effort to develop coronavirus vaccines and treatments quickly.
Slaoui spent 30 years working at GlaxoSmithKline, where he successfully developed 14 vaccines, according to the report of USA Today. He also served on the board at Moderna, but he eventually stepped down from that position when he signed on with Operation Warp Speed.
With great effort, Slaoui has distanced the Operation Warp Speed program from any political pressure. He has repeatedly said that he would resign as soon as he feels like political operatives are interfering with their operation.
Results from the studies that enrolled thousands of participants showed that both vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer were 95 percent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 compared with a placebo.
However, questions remain about how durable the vaccine protection is and whether it can help reduce the transmission and prevent any asymptomatic infections.
The FDA is currently reviewing both vaccine applications, and the agency is expected to issue its decisions on emergency authorizations before the end of the year.
On December 2, the U.K. government authorized Pfizer's vaccine, making it the first Western country to approve a coronavirus vaccine for distribution.
Operation Warp Speed
Warp Speed is now prepared to start distributing doses to numerous states within 24 to 48 hours of an authorization decision.
The government is now splitting up limited doses proportionally to each state's population, with governors deciding where Warp Speed sends the doses in their states.
State officials will also be deciding which Americans are the first to get the coronavirus vaccines, which are given as a two-dose regimen, according to ABC.
An advisory group to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC recommended that frontline healthcare workers and nursing-home residents get the highest priority.
Warp Speed has spent billions of dollars to secure supplies from drugmakers. Slaoui also stated that he expected additional experimental COVID-19 vaccine programs run by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson to give definitive data by January 2021.
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