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 The inoculations, seen as pivotal to ultimately halting a surging
pandemic that is claiming more than 2,400 U.S. lives a day, could
begin as early as Monday.
The first are likely to be at vaccination sites closest to any of
the 145 initial shipment destinations nationwide, or those nearest
the FedEx Corp or United Parcel Service cargo centers that are
relaying deliveries from the factory.
Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky suggested the very first
injections of the vaccine will be given in his state, home to the
UPS Worldport sorting facility in Louisville - one of two
distribution command centers. The other is the FedEx air cargo hub
in Memphis, Tennessee.
"We now believe that the first individuals will be vaccinated here
in the commonwealth tomorrow morning. We are less than 24 hours away
from the beginning of the end of this virus," Beshear wrote on
Twitter on Sunday.
The coronavirus vaccine, developed by Pfizer and its German partner
BioNTech, gained emergency-use approval from federal regulators late
on Friday, clearing the way for distribution to begin a mere 11
months after the United States documented its first COVID-19
infections.
The monumental undertaking began early on Sunday with trucks
carrying dry ice-cooled packages of vaccine - which must be kept at
sub-Arctic temperatures - from Pfizer's facility in Kalamazoo,
Michigan, to UPS and FedEx planes waiting at air fields in Lansing
and Grand Rapids.
TWO HUBS, MANY SPOKES
From there, the delivery jets whisked the shipments to UPS and
FedEx's respective cargo hubs in Louisville and Memphis, for
distribution on planes and trucks to the first 145 of 636
vaccine-staging areas across the country. A second and third waves
of vaccine shipments were due to go out to the remaining sites on
Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Today, we're not hauling freight, we're delivering hope,” said
Andrew Boyle, co-president of Boyle Transportation, which was hired
by UPS to help ferry vaccine from the factory to a waiting plane in
Lansing.
The precious cargo was escorted to airports by body-armor-clad
security officers.
Boyle employee Bonnie Brewer, 56, said decades of experience hauling
chemotherapies and other life-saving drugs prepared her for the
historic run.
"It feels amazing,” Brewer told Reuters after the cargo was safely
handed off.
Healthcare workers and elderly residents of long-term care homes
will be first in line to get the inoculations of a two-dose regimen
given about three weeks apart.
Public health officials have warned Americans not to become
complacent about wearing masks and avoiding crowds in the meantime.
More than 100 million people, or about 30% of the U.S. population,
could be immunized by the end of March, U.S. Operation Warp Speed
chief adviser Dr Moncef Slaoui said in an interview with Fox News
Sunday.
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That would still leave the country far short of herd immunity that would halt
virus transmission, so masks and social distancing will be needed for months to
control the rampaging outbreak.
Health officials will also have to overcome widespread hesitancy about the new
vaccines, with many Americans concerned the record speed at which they were
developed may have compromised safety.
"It is however critical that most of the American people decide and accept to
take the vaccine," Slaoui said. "We are very concerned by the hesitancy that we
see."
SPECIAL DELIVERY
The massive logistical effort is further complicated by the need to transport
and store the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at minus 70 Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit),
requiring enormous quantities of dry ice or specialized ultra-cold freezers.
Workers clapped and whistled as the first boxes were loaded onto trucks at the
Pfizer factory. The long-awaited moment comes as the U.S. death toll was
approaching 300,000 and infections and hospitalizations set daily records. Some
models project that deaths could reach 500,000 before vaccines become widely
available in the spring and summer. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi)
Slaoui said the United States hopes to have about 40 million vaccine doses -
enough for 20 million people - distributed by the end of December. That would
include vaccines from both Pfizer and Moderna Inc. An outside FDA advisory panel
is scheduled to consider the Moderna vaccine on Thursday, with emergency use
expected to be granted shortly after.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was found to be 95% effective in preventing illness
in a large clinical trial. It is not yet known if it prevents infection or
transmission of the coronavirus.
UPS and FedEx package delivery drivers are giving the vaccine priority over
holiday gifts and other parcels, as health officials plead with the public to
avoid holiday gatherings following a post-Thanksgiving spike in hospitalizations
and deaths.
Both companies have expertise handling fragile medical products and are leaving
little room for error. They are providing temperature and location tracking to
backup devices embedded in the Pfizer boxes, and tracking each shipment
throughout its journey.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Susan
Cornwell and Richard Cowan in Washington and Peter Szekely in New York; Writing
by Steve Gorman; Editing by Joseph White, Lisa Shumaker and Bill Berkrot)
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