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Delivery of coronavirus vaccine in January 2021, Trump official says

U.S. can expect delivery of a vaccine to prevent the novel coronavirus starting in January 2021, an official from the Trump administration has said. The statement comes amid remarks from President Donald Trump that inoculations could begin this month.

India TV News Desk Edited by: India TV News Desk New Delhi Updated on: October 10, 2020 13:52 IST
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Delivery of coronavirus vaccine in January 2021, Trump official says

U.S. can expect delivery of a vaccine to prevent the novel coronavirus starting in January 2021, an official from the Trump administration has said. The statement comes amid remarks from President Donald Trump that inoculations could begin this month. 

"The administration is accelerating production of safe and effective vaccines...to ensure delivery starting January 2021," Dr. Robert Kadlec said in an email on Friday. He is the Department of Health and Human Services' Assistant Secretary of preparedness and response. According to the HHS, a vaccine could be approved before the end of the year but will take time to distribute.

However, President Donald, on various occasions, has said that a vaccine could arrive within weeks. “We think we can start sometime in October,” Mr. Trump said at a White House press briefing last month.

Earlier on Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that there could be 100 million vaccine doses available by the end of the year “pending FDA authorizations.” Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who is leading the government’s vaccine effort, told Marketwatch on Friday that researchers could know “by late October, or November, or in December” whether one of the vaccines in development is effective, but that it would then take weeks to get emergency authorization to administer it.

When asked about the disparity, the White House was not specific on a date but said Trump’s priority is to distribute a vaccine “as soon as possible.” Kadlec said, without elaborating, that it wasn’t correct to conclude that this meant the country couldn’t see a vaccine sooner than January.

Dr. Kadlec was responding to a series of questions from and FRONTLINE about the administration’s response to the pandemic and, in particular, about shortages of critical medical supplies.

Roughly nine months into the pandemic, health care workers and even the Government Accountability Office report there still isn’t enough protective equipment for frontline workers or adequate coordination from the federal government. And although there are emergency preparedness and response plans in place, implementation has been inconsistent.

"We went into this pandemic unprepared, and we remain so months later,” said Boris Lushniak, former acting surgeon general in the Obama administration. “It is time to reevaluate the complete medical supply chain in the U.S. The federal government needs to take on the leadership role here.”

Across the country, public health leaders are warning about the coming months.

"A cohesive national plan for equitably distributing PPE has still not been proposed, let alone implemented,” said Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Andrew T. Chan, who found Black, Hispanic and Asian health care workers had the highest risk of contracting COVID-19. “Thus, we will continue to fly by the seat of our pants with our fingers crossed for the foreseeable future.”

Michael Lu, dean of University of California, Berkeley’s school of public health, said one important part of the solution lies in a bipartisan bill fast tracked in the Senate that would rebuild the Strategic National Stockpile and strengthen U.S. manufacturing of medical masks, gowns and other protective gear.

“We weren’t ready for the pandemic,” Lu said. “And we are still not ready.”

(With AP inputs)

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