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U.S began this Saturday to prepare the first doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 from Pfizer and BioNTech, a day after the drug regulator approved its emergency use, which gives way to a complex phase that will try to carry out the first inoculations to several million people starting Monday.
The United States is the sixth country, after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom, that authorizes the use of the vaccine from Pfizer and the German BioNTech, which has shown in clinical trials with 44,000 volunteers a 95% effectiveness against covid-19.
Under the agreement between Pfizer and the United States government, within Operation Warp Speed to obtain therapies against covid in record time and which has dedicated more than 10 billion dollars to the anticovid vaccine, the pharmaceutical company will provide 100 million doses of its vaccine until March free of cost for Americans.
“Today is D-day. It is the day the mission begins. In the past it was the beginning of the end of World War II and now it will be the beginning of the end of the pandemic “, General Gus Perna, the military man who has led the planning of the distribution of vaccines throughout the country within the historic Operation Warp Speed (Faster than light, in Spanish), indicated at a press conference.
First vaccinations, Monday
Perna assured that the first vaccines will reach some of the around 600 vaccination points established by the states on Monday morning and will continue since then “a steady distribution cadence “of vaccines to reach 40 million doses by the end of this month.
“Right now (the vaccines) are being packaged and will start to leave the manufacturing facility tomorrow morning “, added the uniformed man.
Attention this Saturday was on the Pfizer factories in Michigan and Wisconsin, where the first trucks that will have to transport the ultra-cold freezers that keep the serum at temperatures of 70 degrees Celsius below zero.
Hospitals in all 50 states have already prepared the icy chests where will store part of the 2.9 million doses expected to be distributed in the first week and that will go first to inmates and workers in nursing homes.
The complex process was outlined last night in broad strokes in a message from the president, Donald Trump, to the nation and requires collaboration between Pfizer – which has created ultra-cold boxes with technology GPS tracking and temperature control-, the large US logistics operators Fedex and UPS, the Armed Forces, state health officials and finally hospitals and pharmacies that will administer the injections.
The logistical challenge is even greater when one takes into account that after three weeks a second injection must be administered to guarantee the immunity that has been recorded in clinical trials.
The first batch is insufficient
This first batch of vaccines is not expected to be sufficient for all states, which have distribution authority within the priority groups created by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), although it is expected that next week the candidate of the modern pharmaceutical company will join the set of authorized immunizations.
States like New York hope to vaccinate all their residents and employees in nursing homes for the remainder of the year, to proceed immediately afterwards to inject medical and emergency personnel who are on the front lines of the fight against this pandemic that has left in this country nearly 300,000 dead, more than in any other nation in the world.
In parallel, the medical centers and pharmacies that will participate in the vaccination campaign have started a race to be well supplied with dry ice, syringes, alcohol, dressings and even medicines to respond to possible anaphylactic attacks such as those registered in the first vaccination days in the United Kingdom.
“We are ensuring that we maintain the cold chain at all times and that CDC management guidelines are followed. In the past we have been able to maintain that cold chain in rural areas or complicated places like Africa and we believe it will work without major complications, “Dr. Peter Marks, head of the committee that approved the vaccine, said at a press conference today.
The director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, for its acronym in English), Stephen Hahn, assured that they work “As fast as we can, but the top priority is maintaining the integrity of the scientific process.”
Hahn acknowledged that there may be doubts and concerns about the vaccine, but assured that the entire approval process has been done in a transparent and rigorous manner.
The FDA official was criticized yesterday by Trump for his slow approval of the Pfizer vaccine And, according to the US media, the president threatened him with dismissal.
Next week the FDA will review Moderna’s application for authorization of the vaccine. If that pharmaceutical company joins the distribution operation, the quantities of doses available to face the pandemic and the ease of transporting them will increase significantly.
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