Newsman: The Food and drug administration as given clearance to Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine for emergency uses expecting the very first shot of vaccine may be administrated on Monday in US. A Pfizer spokesperson confirmed to news network CNN Friday night. The Center for disease control (CDC)’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices( ACIP) is due to must meet tomorrow the Saturday to review and or finally approve the FDA clearance to accept the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. If the ACIP approve the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine against covid-19, An initial shipment of about 2.9 million doses of the vaccine will be sent around the United States over the next week. Accrding to the chief of operation war speed on covid19, Army Gen. Gustave F. Perna said they are ready to ship the vaccine within 36 hours across the country. However in first face 20 million Americans are to be vaccinated upon approval of the vaccine according to the CDC.
BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin told CNN Friday night in an exclusive interview on Friday BioNTech’s headquarters in Mainz, Germany,
“The authorization of our vaccine in the United States was one of our most important milestones from the beginning,”
The first shipments of the vaccine will be sent from a Pfizer facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan. UPS and FedEx have both said they’re standing by to help with distribution following authorization.
The vaccines will then be flown across the country, and the Federal Aviation Administration has said its air traffic controllers will prioritize flights carrying the vaccines.
FedEx and UPS will be involved in transporting the vaccines on the ground, delivering them to facilities where they will be administered, like hospitals and long-term care facilities.
Pfizer has a deal with the U.S. government to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine by next March. Under that agreement, the shots will be free to the public. Officials had recently asked Pfizer to sell it another 100 million doses, but Pfizer had said it could not meet that demand until about June.
The federal government announced Friday that it is buying another 100 million doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine to be delivered between April and June. The new deal indicates that Moderna is able to cover at least some of the gap. At the same time, though, doubts about the ability of other vaccine makers to demonstrate their products are safe and effective have grown, raising questions about whether the United States will be entirely dependent on supplies from Pfizer, Moderna and possibly a third company, Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson is expected to reveal the results of its clinical trials early next month.
The Trump administration’s purchase will boost the number of people who can be vaccinated by 50 percent, to 150 million Americans. But that still leaves the question of how and when the roughly 180 million other Americans will be covered. The government signed deals last summer with Moderna and Pfizer to deliver a total of 200 million doses by next March. Because both vaccines require two doses, those contracts guaranteed enough doses for 100 million people.
Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, did not address shortfalls in announcing the new vaccine purchase late Friday.
“This new federal purchase can give Americans even greater confidence we will have enough supply to vaccinate all Americans who want it by the second quarter of 2021,” he said.
The F.D.A.’s decision followed an extraordinary sequence of events on Friday morning when the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, told the F.D.A. commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn, to consider looking for his next job if he didn’t get the emergency approval done on Friday, according to a report published by the New York Times today. The report says, a senior administration official spoke to New York Times on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. “Dr. Hahn then ordered vaccine regulators at the agency to do it by the end of the day.”
The authorization set off a complicated coordination effort from Pfizer, private shipping companies, state and local health officials, the military, hospitals and pharmacy chains to get the first week’s batch of about three million doses to health care workers and nursing home residents as quickly as possible, all while keeping the vaccine at ultra cold temperatures.
Through FDA authorization of the EUA of the Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine, the United States becomes the sixth country in addition to Britain, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico to clear the vaccine. Other authorizations, including by the European Union, are expected within weeks.
Every state, along with six major cities, has submitted to the federal government a list of locations — mostly hospitals — where the Pfizer vaccine is to ship initially. In populous Florida, the first recipients will be five hospitals, in Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Hollywood. In tiny, rural Vermont, only the University of Vermont Medical Center and a state warehouse will get supplies.
McKesson Corporation, a giant medical supplier, is sending kits of syringes, alcohol pads, face shields and other supplies to the same sites, where they will meet up with the vaccines that Pfizer is shipping in special boxes, packed with dry ice, designed to keep them at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Pfizer packaging will include a device that tracks the location of the box, plus a thermal probe that will make sure the deep freeze is maintained throughout the journey from the company’s distribution sites in Michigan and Wisconsin.
An expert panel advising the F.D.A. on Thursday gave its approval of Pfizer’s vaccine for people 16 and older, and the agency was planning to release the formal authorization on Saturday. That timeline was accelerated by half a day after President Trump attacked Dr. Hahn for failing to authorize a vaccine more quickly. But the accelerated announcement was not expected to speed up the delivery of vaccines around the country.
Mr. Trump told Dr. Hahn on Twitter on Friday morning to “stop playing games and start saving lives!!!” He called the F.D.A. “a big, old, slow turtle,” flush with funds but mired in bureaucracy.
The president wrote that with “my pushing,” the administration had shaved years off the development of vaccines. “Get the dam vaccines out NOW, Dr. Hahn,” he wrote, misspelling the expletive.
Even though the F.D.A. was going to approve the Pfizer vaccine in any case, some experts warned that the pressure from the White House could undermine public trust in the agency’s decision-making.
A vaccine, developed by Moderna, is also under review by the F.D.A. and could soon be cleared for emergency use. Other vaccines, including ones developed by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, are in late-stage trials and could be authorized in the next few months.
The federal government agreed last summer to purchase 100 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine, locking in options to purchase up to another 400 million doses, at a cost of $16.50 a dose. Unlike the options in its contract with Pfizer, the government is allowed to call on Moderna for more doses at the government’s “sole discretion.”
