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The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has told a Senate panel that he believes it will be a year before a coronavirus vaccine is “generally available to the American public.”
That estimate contrasts with the recent bullish message from Donald Trump, who on Tuesday repeated his claim that “we will have a vaccine in a matter of weeks,” even though a successful vaccine from ongoing US trials has yet to be revealed. the CDC director on Wednesday as “confused” about the timeline.
Trump did not specify whether he was referring to a “generally available” vaccine or a limited number of doses, but suggested during his reelection campaign that a vaccine solution to the pandemic crisis in the United States was imminent.
The CDC’s Robert Redfield testified before the Senate on Wednesday when his agency issued a document with impressionistic advice for state and local jurisdictions on how to prepare to distribute a coronavirus vaccine, when and if a vaccine is approved.
Redfield said he expected vaccinations to begin in November or December, but in limited numbers prioritized for healthcare personnel, at-risk populations and other vulnerable groups.
However, at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Trump said Redfield was “confused” when he said a vaccine will only be available to first responders if it is developed in November or December.
“I think he made a mistake with that statement,” Trump said. “When he said it, I think he was confused. I’m just telling you that we’re ready to go. “
Redfield also told the Senate that he believed the masks were “the most important and powerful public health tool we have” to fight the coronavirus, including a possible vaccine. “This mask has more guarantees to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine,” he said, explaining that a vaccine would probably not guarantee immunity in all cases.
At this point, Trump also contradicted him, saying that Redfield “made a mistake.”
“The masks also have problems. … A lot of people didn’t like the mask concept at first, Dr. Fauci didn’t like it at first, ”Trump said. He didn’t mention that Fauci has since clarified that he advised against masks early in the pandemic out of fear the guide would create a panic-induced shortage in personal protective equipment for essential workers.
Trump has repeatedly sparked doubts about the value of masks, saying at a city hall event Tuesday, when asked why he wasn’t wearing a mask, that “a lot of people think masks are not good” and, when asked for an example, called “waiters”, which describes a scene in which a mask was used incorrectly.
While several candidate vaccines are in the last stage of clinical trials, drug companies and health officials have warned in recent weeks that they would not risk public health by speeding up the process. Obtaining regulatory approval for a vaccine usually takes years.
Redfield testified before a Senate subcommittee that oversees spending on health and human services.
“If you ask me when it will be generally available to the American public so that we can begin to take advantage of the vaccine to get back to our normal lives, I think we are probably looking at the third quarter – late second quarter, third quarter of 2021,” said Redfield .
The document issued by the CDC on Wednesday advised localities to set up teams to prepare to distribute vaccine doses, but the document cautions that the details are still unclear.
“It is not yet known which vaccines will be available, in what volumes, at what time, with what efficiency and with what storage and handling requirements,” the guide said.
“A key point to consider is that the vaccine supply will be limited at the beginning of the program, so the dose allocation should focus on the vaccine providers and the settings for vaccination of limited critical populations, as well as the reach to these. populations. The vaccine supply is expected to increase rapidly in the following months. “
In a list of challenges facing vaccine distribution, the document calls on local jurisdictions to “ensure [that] selected vaccination locations can reach populations, manage cold chain requirements, and meet notification requirements for vaccine supply and receipt ”. The “cold chain requirements” refer to the need to maintain certain doses of vaccine in very cold environments.
Aside from the general advice of the CDC, the federal government did not appear to be making great preparations to build a national vaccine distribution effort.
Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense held a call Wednesday with reporters and later released documents about the distribution plans that it is sending to state and local public health officials.
The CDC guidance advised localities to consider carrying the coronavirus vaccine in their “routine activities of the pandemic influenza and immunization program.”
The annual flu vaccine acceptance rate is about 50%, which means that agencies may have difficulty persuading enough of the public to get vaccinated to provide immune protection.
It is not known which vaccine candidates the government may be preparing to authorize, or what level of immunity those candidates might confer for how long. Multiple doses of a vaccine may be required and multiple vaccines of different efficacy may be released.
“It is imperative that state and local authorities combine and coordinate efforts,” advised the CDC.
At a briefing at the White House, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany went much further than Redfield and said the White House believes a vaccine “will be widely available by the end of the year.”
When asked, he said the government expected 100 million doses to be “in production by the end of the year,” without further clarification.
