The federal government is planning to send out 6.4 million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to U.S. communities within 24 hours of regulatory clearance, the Washington Post reported late Tuesday.
It sounds like a reasonable plan. When does the second vaccine come on line?
The general public won’t be administered with the vaccine until about mid year 2021.
Wait for the staged White House event on that day!!!
I predict it will be the most obnoxious event ever. Trump anoints himself the greatest person who ever lived because he created the vaccine and then nominates himself for the Nobel Prize!
Roughly three weeks ago the U.S. averaged 867 deaths per day, using the CDC date of Feb 26 as first non-travel related recorded infection in the U.S.
The math today, 274 days from first infection, and 260,000 deaths (Johns-Hopkins) reflects average daily death tally of 949.
That’s how much mortality rates have accelerated.
Interestingly enough the information is getting out to the general public. I’ve seen posts about a rollout plan on Facebook and my friend Skyped me yesterday asking if I would get it when available. She even knew which phase it would be available (to us).
In Medicine 
From the article: “Pfizer has been conducting test runs to prepare for delivery and proper handling of the shots and according to the Post, Perna said that the “lessons learned” during these rehearsals are being shared with other officials.”
When might Pfizer or someone from the maladministration be sharing their information with the public? Or are they just going to continue sending out “press briefings?” They are not the same thing.
@ronbyers makes an important point: What are the plans to distribute the other vaccines, when they come out, and how will they track results, or is it going to be “winner take all?” I guess “what’s epidemiology got to do with it?” is the operating principle here.
This is such good news! Thanks to the scientists and doctors and researchers who persevered in SPITE of all the ‘politics’.
Sign me up.
Sounds like warp speed has not met its claims of speed. In the least few days the number of doses available by end of December keeps changing … 60 million then 50 million then Redfield last night says 40 million. And what does
“Available” mean? Trump just wants to take credit. Sounds like projections of PPE and tests. Anyway what is going price for concierge doctor vaccinations?? $10k? $100k??
The other vaccines will be added in as they become available. Since Moderna requires only an ordinary freezer and Astra Zeneca (and J&J, which should have results soon) is refrigerated, those will be given in doctor’s offices and pharmacies, rather than hospitals.
That’s the easy part. Who’s going to track results, track side effects, track morbidity/mortality, effectiveness, do quality control, and then, of course, who is going to combine results and variables, and do the meta-analyses, and multivariate analyses? And report, accurately, the results? CDC? (I don’t think so), the Army Logistics Center? (I don’t think so.) Or are we just going to shake our heads, and say “we did the best we could?” And stop being so “sciency?”
Let’s also consider how many people will say “I got my vaccine!” and then neglect to get the second dose. It’s hard to believe that people who think that wearing a mask is too onerous will think that they need to go get another injection, especially if they didn’t get a red lollipop after the first shot.
I suspect Astra Zeneca will have a shitload of vaccine available sooner than anyone else. They inked a deal with India’s Serum Institute, the world’s largest producer of vaccines.
AstraZeneca said it had signed a licensing deal with the Serum Institute of India to provide 1 billion doses to low- and middle-income countries, with 400 million of those shots set to be delivered by the end of 2020, according to a press release Thursday.
AstraZeneca is aiming to produce 2 billion doses of a coronavirus vaccine — and it could be ready by September
Sure, this was from a while back and I suspect things got put on the back burner for a while, but I suspect their vaccine will be more widely available than others.
added:
I did read a few months ago that the owner of Serum Institute was putting millions of his own money at risk by ramping up before final test results were in.
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This. There’s no guarantee of even what we assume to be immunity until people get their second doses in mid-january. So even if the vaccine starts reaching the general public in may or so, it will be a month after that before any effect. And as long as spread continues to be the result of superspreader events, vaccinating the front line will do relatively little to interrupt the chain of transmission (because those people are already mostly being smart).
I wonder whether any of the vaccine being sent to the bureau of prisons will reach inmates, or if it’s all for guards and administrators.
I believe there was some indication that there was decent protection from a single dose, though the numbers were small. Viral vaccines work less by stimulating antibodies than by eliciting memory T cells that are primed to pounce on the virus should it appear. Also, this is a virus that gets in through mucous membranes so levels of antibodies in the blood are not necessarily that meaningful. They are likely a surrogate marker, rather than the key active player.
As far as post-marketing surveillance, that falls to the manufacturers and FDA. And if you don’t trust the FDA, keep in mind that this vaccine will be given all over the world and agncies like the EMEA, WHO and so on will be following it closely, along with literally thousands of academic scientists who will do meta analyses. Publish or perish…
Choices are getting interesting. Do you take an mRNA, viral vector (adenovirus), inactivated virus or a protein antigen vaccine?
When you figure it out, could you let us know?
I’m glad I’m not going to be in any of the first few tranches.