In a major breakthrough, US federal government announced that all Americans will be provided with free vaccines for Covid-19 once they get approval for emergency authorization.
A 57 page “playbook” from the US government highlighted plans to make the vaccine available for all Americans “without charging a dime” once it is proven safe and effective.
Despite President Trump’s constant assurance that the vaccine would be available before November 3, the officials still remain unclear about the timing of the vaccine. However, the officials are eyeing to begin the campaign in January next year.
The Pentagon is involved in the distribution of the vaccine but civilian health workers will be providing the shots to public.
The shot wouldn’t be broadly available to most of the US population until the summer or fall of 2021, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dr. Robert Redfield told the Congress on Wednesday.
“We’re dealing in a world of great uncertainty. We don’t know the timing of when we’ll have a vaccine, we don’t know the quantities, we don’t know the efficacy of those vaccines,” said Paul Mango, the deputy chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services.
“This is a really quite extraordinary, logistically complex undertaking, and a lot of uncertainties right now. I think the message we want you to leave with is, we are prepared for all of those uncertainties,” he added.
As per the playbook, people would need two doses of vaccine withing a period of 21 and 28 days. The vaccine injected for double dose should be from the same drug maker. It also mentioned that vaccination process will be gradual as initially, the supply would be limited. Health workers, essential services employees and people in vulnerable groups will be the first to get vaccinated.
“The goal of the US government is to have enough COVID-19 vaccine for all people in the United States who wish to be vaccinated,” the CDC said in its report.
Currently, three drug makers are conducting late-stage trials of the potential vaccine in the United States. Pfizer, one of the candidates, has said that they would be making the vaccine available for emergency authorization as early as October while the other two vaccines — Moderna and AstraZeneca– plan to make the vaccine available by the end of this year.
