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December 12, 2020 could go down in history as the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic, nearly a year after Chinese Communist authorities finally admitted they were facing an unprecedented health crisis triggered by the spread of a unknown virus in Wuhan.
“Starting on December 11 or 12, I hope the first people will be immunized in the United States, in every state,” said Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser to the US government and coordinator of Operation Warp Speed, a mass immunization of the population.
He also said that if the plan works properly, enough Americans will be vaccinated in May to defeat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Coronavirus: good news and concerns
With the United States reaching 12 million COVID-19 cases, the Trump administration’s population immunization program coordinator predicts that life will return to normal before the middle of next year.
The health official’s note of optimism comes in the context of a difficult time in the United States, when millions of people are expected to travel with their families for the Thanksgiving holiday. This mass exodus could lead to a new spike in infections, experts fear.
Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific advisor to Operation Warp Speed, the development and distribution of a coronavirus vaccine, which includes military and commercial components, as well as government health experts, says that approval procedures for the vaccine could make the vaccination outside of the trial programs is carried out in the middle of next month.
The first application for approval of a coronavavirus vaccine to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was submitted on Friday by the partnership between the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and BioNTech’s German partners.
The long-awaited decision by millions of people will take place on December 10, at FDA headquarters, when the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is expected to be licensed urgently.
The United States aims to vaccinate 20 million people in December and 30 million a month starting in January. Medical staff will take priority.
Slaoui also said that the Moderna vaccine would also need to be approved quickly, to more quickly reach 70% of the immunized population, a level considered by specialists as necessary for so-called herd immunity.
