U.S. plans for first COVID vaccines as pandemic deaths surge again
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[December 02, 2020]
By Julie Steenhuysen and Doina Chiacu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. health
officials announced plans on Tuesday to begin vaccinating Americans
against the coronavirus as early as mid-December, as nationwide deaths
hit the highest number for a single day in six months.
Some 20 million people could be inoculated against COVID-19 by the end
of 2020 and most Americans will have access to highly effective vaccines
by mid-2021, the chief adviser of President Donald Trump's Operation
Warp Speed program said.
"Within 24 hours, maybe at most 36 to 48 hours, from the approval, the
vaccine can be in people's arms," Moncef Slaoui, a former
GlaxoSmithKline executive who is overseeing the vaccine portion of the
U.S. program, said at an event conducted by The Washington Post
newspaper.
His comments came on the same day that another 2,295 fatalities
nationwide were linked to COVID-19, even before California, the most
populous U.S. state, reported full results. Officials in several states
said numbers were higher in part due to a backlog from the Thanksgiving
holiday.
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A statement from the public health director for Los Angeles County
highlighted the ravages of the surging pandemic. Barbara Ferrer, the
public health director, said that while Tuesday was the county's "worst
day thus far" of the pandemic, "...it will likely not remain the worst
day of the pandemic in Los Angeles County. That will be tomorrow, and
the next day and the next as cases, hospitalizations and deaths
increase."
Health officials pleaded with Americans to stick with coronavirus
restrictions even with a vaccine in sight.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is moving to shorten
the length of self-quarantine recommended after potential exposure to
the coronavirus to 10 days, or seven days with a negative test, a
federal spokesperson said on Tuesday. The CDC currently recommends a
14-day quarantine in order to curb the transmission of the virus.
TIMELINE ON A VACCINE
Some 60 million to 70 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine could be
available per month beginning in January, after the expected regulatory
approval of products from Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc, Slaoui said.
A Food and Drug Administration panel of outside advisers will meet on
Dec. 10 to discuss whether to recommend emergency use authorization of
the Pfizer vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech SE. Moderna's
vaccine candidate is expected to be reviewed a week later.
The timeline described by Slaoui and Health and Human Services Secretary
Alex Azar appeared to assume that the FDA's authorization of the first
vaccine would come within days of the Dec. 10 meeting.
But the head of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research,
Dr. Peter Marks, told patient advocacy groups last week that it might
take "a few days to a few weeks."
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A worker deposits a novel coronavirus test in a barrel in Los
Angeles, California, U.S., December 1, 2020. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
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FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, likewise, has said the process could
take longer.
The U.S. Transportation Department said on Tuesday it has made
preparations to enable the "immediate mass shipment" of COVID-19
vaccines and completed all necessary regulatory measures.
An estimated 21 million healthcare workers and 3 million residents
of long-term care facilities should be first in line to receive a
vaccine, according to a recommendation voted on by a CDC panel of
advisers on Tuesday.
Nursing homes are experiencing the worst outbreak of weekly
coronavirus cases since the spring, according to the American Health
Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL).
HOLIDAY TRAVEL SPIKE
State and local officials have returned to imposing restrictions on
businesses and activities in response to the latest surge of a
pandemic that killed 37,000 people in November.
A record nearly 96,000 COVID-19 patients were reported in U.S.
hospitals on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally.
Hospitalizations and deaths are expected to spike even higher during
the holiday travel season, a trend that officials warn could
overwhelm already strained healthcare systems.
The monthly death toll from COVID-19 is projected to nearly double
in December to a pandemic-high of more than 70,000 and surpass
76,000 in January before ebbing in February, according to a widely
cited model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health
Metrics and Evaluation.
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Pandemic-related restrictions have ravaged the U.S. economy. A
bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday unveiled a $908
billion COVID-19 relief bill aimed at breaking a deadlock over
emergency assistance for small businesses, industries and the
unemployed.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Julie Steenhuysen; Additional
reporting by Lisa Shumaker, Maria Caspani, Peter Szekely, Jonathan
Allen, David Shepardson, Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by
Daniel Trotta and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Bill
Tarrant and Leslie Adler)
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