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WASHINGTON – The top adviser to the United States’ efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine said Sunday that he planned to meet with President-elect Joe Biden this week to discuss the program ahead of the expected first round of vaccinations in the country in late September. this month.
Moncef Slaoui, senior adviser to the US government’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, said he has yet to meet with Biden, who last week criticized the Trump administration’s vaccine distribution plan.
“We really look forward to it because things have actually been planned very appropriately,” Slaoui said in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Biden said Friday that his team had not seen a detailed Trump administration scheme for distributing a vaccine to multiple states, calling it an expensive and difficult process.
“There’s no detailed plan that we’ve seen, anyway, as to how to get the vaccine out of a container, into an injection syringe, onto someone’s arm,” Biden said.
Slaoui said part of the “confusion” may be because the government’s plan relies on state health agencies to administer the vaccine.
“I think the plans are there and I’m sure that once we explain it, everything in detail. I hope the new transition team understands that things are well planned,” he told CBS.
The United States is fighting a resurgence of the virus, with a record number of infections and a daily death toll that has surpassed 2,000 in recent days. More than 281,000 Americans have died from the COVID-19 disease, according to a Reuters tally.
President Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat to Biden in the November 3 presidential election led to a delay in the transition process that allowed White House health advisers to communicate with Biden’s new health advisory team.
Wrong messages
First responders, healthcare workers, and nursing home residents will be the first groups to receive the vaccine once it is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is expected in the next two weeks. . External advisers to the FDA are scheduled to meet Thursday to review Pfizer’s emergency use request for its vaccine.
Slaoui has said that the second group of people to get the vaccine will likely include essential employees like postal workers in February and March, and then the general population will follow.
When asked on Sunday when Americans would start to see the impact of the vaccine, Slaoui told CBS that could happen for the most susceptible people in January or February.
“But in terms of population, for our life to begin to return to normal, we are talking about April or May,” he said.
With a vaccine so close and the winter holiday season looming, US health experts have been pleading with Americans not to lower their coronavirus safety protocols – wearing masks, social distancing, and avoiding large gatherings.
“That’s what will help us get through this the most,” US Health Secretary Alex Azar said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We have these vaccines on the way. There is a lot of hope ahead, we just want to make sure everyone benefits from them.
Dr. Deborah Birx, who works with Azar on the White House coronavirus task force, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that public health officials have had to fight incorrect messages sent by members. from the Trump administration on the effectiveness of masks and other forms of mitigation. measurements.
“Our job is to constantly say that those are myths,” he said. “You are wrong.” – Reuters
