Newsman: United Kingdom becomes the World’s first country approving the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine, while the United States is focusing on vaccine priority and waiting for the Federal drug administration’s approval. The next challenge will be the equivalent distribution for US. Mean time the inoculations will begin next week in UK. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said early Wednesday. They already have ordered 40 million vaccine doses from Pfizer which seems enough for up to a third of the population. The Covid-19 vaccine was found to be 95 percent effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 , according the drug maker, said after clinical trials.
“This authorization is a goal we have been working toward since we first declared that science will win,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in a news release. Nearly 1.5 million people around the world have died from the virus, with more than 271,000 deaths in the U.S. and nearly 60,000 deaths in the U.K. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC,”For so long we’ve been saying that if a vaccine is developed, then things will get better in 2021, and now we can say when this vaccine is rolled out things will get better,”.
While reporting the single day death in US surged to nearly 2600 hundreds And hospitalization rate nearly 100 thousands across the country. The pharmaceutical giant submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration on Nov. 20 for an emergency use authorization in the U.S.
CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will now decide which groups will first get the vaccine, such as care home residents, health and care staff, the elderly and people who are clinically vulnerable.
The advisory committee has expressed support for, but not yet voted on, the likely order for three groups who should g et the shots next as About 87 million health-care personnel essential workers in Phase 1b, and 53 million people of 65 age and older, and near about 100 million adults with underlying medical conditions that put them at higher risk of getting very sick with covid-19 in Phase 1c.
However , a federal advisory panel recommended Tuesday afternoon ,the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine should be given to an estimated 21 million health care workers and 3 million residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term-care facilities. Residents and employees of long-term-care facilities were prioritized because they account for nearly 40 percent of deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the corona virus.
The recommendations for the highest-priority groups, known as phase 1, will be sent to center for diseases control & prevention Director Robert Redfield, who also informs Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. If the recommendations are approved, they will become official CDC recommendations on immunization in the United States and provide guidance to state officials, who are scrambling to meet a Friday deadline for vaccine distribution planning.
The Pfizer shots must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit — far colder than standard cooling systems. To help accommodate the extra refrigeration requirement, Pfizer has developed a supercool storage unit packed with dry ice.
Helen Keipp Talbot, an associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University, was the sole dissenting vote other isle of 13 votes in the committee to prioritize two groups according to the media report.
Beth Bell, a global health expert at the University of Washington who chairs the panel’s coronavirus vaccine work group, said the vote was coming at “a particularly difficult time” in the pandemic.
“There is an average of one covid death per minute right now,” she said. During the nearly four-hour meeting, she said, at least 180 people “will have died from covid-19, so we are acting none too soon.”
The advisory group will also make recommendations at later meetings for priority groups in the next phases, which include essential workers and older adults. A union representing 1.3 million food and retail workers — the United Food & commercial Workers International Union urged the CDC on Tuesday evening to prioritize workers in grocery, meatpacking and food processing for the next round, citing the thousands who have already died. An ongoing debate about the ranking of priority groups will probably intensify as the Food and Drug Administration gets closer to clearing a vaccine later this month.
Michael Pratt, an HHS spokesman, said Azar is committed to following the process and “has insisted that science and data drive the process for vaccines and therapeutic development, and will do so for vaccine allocation and distribution.” He added: “Doctors will make their recommendations, and ultimately the governors will make a determination of what works best for their communities based on input they receive and the circumstances on the ground.”
CDC officials said they anticipate most of the estimated 40 million doses will be distributed by the end of December. After that, 5 million to 10 million doses of vaccine are expected to be sent out each week. Nancy Messonnier, the top official overseeing distribution at the CDC, said her talks with state and local officials suggest that most intend to vaccinate all their health-care workers within three weeks of getting the vaccine.
According to U.S. officials , 40 million doses of vaccines are expected from Pfizer and biotech firm Moderna by the end of the year to immunize 20 million people, which is a fraction of the U.S. population of 330 million. Operation Warp Speed, the administration’s initiative to speed vaccine and therapeutic development, plans to send the first batch of 6.4 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine to communities nationwide within 24 hours of FDA clearance, with the expectation that shots will be administered quickly.
Because of the limited doses, the panel’s work group suggested that health-care systems prioritize their personnel even further. They might do that by staggering vaccinations by individual units, such as emergency departments; giving vaccines first to those with direct patient contact and those who handle infectious material, and to personnel who provide services to patients or their families.
The advisory group, known as ACIP, typically votes on who should get a vaccine after the FDA has approved it. In this case, the FDA isn’t expected to authorize the two leading coronavirus vaccines for emergency use until mid- to late December.
The advisory group met Tuesday because states want priority group guidance before Friday, when they must submit final details to the federal government on where they want the vaccine to be delivered once one is authorized.
The 14 members of the panel have spent the past several months grappling with questions about balancing fairness and expediency. They have scrutinized data and modeled scenarios to address how best to balance saving the lives of the most vulnerable against stopping the spread of virus and doing so in a way that will lessen health inequities.
