A senior government official, tasked with monitoring the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines, has said that the United States expects to vaccinate 100 million citizens by the end of March. Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief medical adviser for Operation Warp Speed, while speaking to Fox News said that the US government has contracts with six different vaccine manufacturers, making it practical for the government to vaccinate 100 million people by the end of March.
This comes after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted emergency use authorisation to Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-shot COVID-19 vaccine, which has agreed to provide the US government with 100 million doses, enough for 50 million people. Slaoui said that the US government had planned from the start to have a handful of products, adding Pfizer is one of them. Moderna, which is expected to get approval later this week, has agreed to provide 100 million doses in the first quarter of 2021, said Slaoui.
Slaoui said that the US government will receive another 100 million doses from Moderna in the second quarter of 2020, which will be enough to meet the US government’s target. Slaoui said that other companies, including Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, will most probably get approval for their vaccines by February and will start supplying to the government in line with their contracts.