Public health officials told a Senate committee Thursday that a panel of experts outside the United States government can help decide who gets the COVID-19 vaccine first. Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, acknowledged that the public might be wary of the US government having the last word on who gets the first few doses.
“We believe it could be something better done, in one circumstance, by an organization that is not itself governmental,” Collins said at a hearing on “Operation Warp Speed,” the Trump administration’s plan to develop a vaccine by the end of the year. “Because it is still the case, I think, that the people are a little uncomfortable because the government is making the decisions here.”
Collins said now may be the time “to bring together a group of great thinkers who can have a high-level view of this that can establish a foundation of principle.” He said there are already early conversations with the National Academy of Medicine, a nonprofit organization that advises governments and companies on health issues.
Collins said he hopes to have distribution principles established by Labor Day. “It looks promising,” he told the committee.
CBS News has contacted the National Academy of Medicine for comment.
CDC Director Robert Redfield said CDC would ultimately have the “primary responsibility” for distributing the doses. Redfield emphasized the need to discover strategies to help vulnerable and undeserved populations, such as establishing mobile units for vaccines.
Collins, Redfield and Acting Director of the Advanced Biomedical Research and Development Authority, Dr. Gary Disbrow, expressed cautious optimism that the US government is on track to develop a safe and effective vaccine by the end of 2020. , and have 300 million doses ready by early 2021.
They said dozens of vaccine candidates are being tested now, and in the end there could be several successful vaccines. A possible vaccine developed by Moderna and the NIH is entering the final stage of human trials this month.
According to current CDC guidance, the first populations to receive a new vaccine that are in short supply would be front-line and essential workers, such as public health personnel, critical health care employees, the police, and drug manufacturers. the vaccine. Pregnant women and young children are also in the first priority group. Healthy adults between the ages of 19 and 64 are expected to be the last group to receive the vaccine.
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