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7.9 million doses of both vaccines are expected to be delivered in the next week.
Less than 24 hours after the FDA cleared Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, Operation Warp Speed COO General Gus Perna said the second vaccine approved in the US is being packaged and loaded and it will start to roll out on Sunday.
Perna said Saturday that amid snowstorms and Christmas shipping rush, 2.9 million doses of the previously licensed Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered nationwide in the past week, across the country. state.
He expects that in the next week, with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines coming out for distribution, 7.9 million doses will be delivered to more than 3,700 locations, including hospitals, doctors’ offices and pharmacies.
In addition to private companies such as Pfizer, Moderna, FedEx, and UPS, the OWS collaboration includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Advanced Biomedical Research and Development Authority, and the Department of Defense.
Perna says he feels “confident” about his goal of processing 20 million vaccines by the end of December and finishing distribution in the United States by the first week of January.
Perna also addressed allegations that vaccine doses were reduced, explaining that she took full personal responsibility by approving more vaccines that were actually releasable, in part due to the FDA’s rigorous safety controls, as well as to an uninterrupted production line of manufacture. to processing to distribution.
He said he has spoken with governors of several states to personally apologize for the mistake.
“At the end of the day, it’s about allowing governors and states to ensure that their people get the vaccine in a fair and equitable process, and that when they do get it, they can be confident that the vaccine is safe and ready to go. be administered in his arms, “Perna said.
On Friday, an independent advisory board voted overwhelmingly to recommend the Moderna vaccine for people 18 and older. Shortly after, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine, prompting the shipment of 5.9 million doses.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are similar in several respects, including the use of messenger RNA technology, and both have been shown to be over 94% effective in protecting against COVID-19 in all races, genders, and females. underlying medical conditions.
Side effects of both vaccines have been shown to be mild and temporary, including symptoms of injection site pain, headache, fever, fatigue, chills, and muscle and joint pain.
The two vaccines have subtle differences, but ultimately Americans will be unlikely to be able to choose which injection to receive as it will depend on which one is available in their area.
The two differ in part because Moderna’s vaccine can be kept in a conventional freezer at minus 4 degrees, while Pfizer requires a special freezer to maintain a minus 94 degree environment.
While both have two-dose timelines, Moderna’s is slightly longer with a 28-day schedule between injections and Pfizer’s is 21 days.
Company vaccines are also licensed for slightly different age groups. Pfizer’s vaccine is licensed for people over the age of 16, while Moderna’s application for authorization includes people over the age of 18.
A third vaccine is also on the horizon. Johnson & Johnson was expected to know in early January if its vaccine was effective. If that vaccine also goes online, that “will help us accelerate even faster coverage of that population,” Moncef Slaoui, Trump’s top scientific adviser on the vaccine effort, told CNBC.
Erin Schumaker of ABC News contributed to this report.