By Carl O’Donnell
(Reuters) – The Trump administration plans to launch a powerful promotional campaign in November to encourage Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, depending on evidence that a successful vaccine will be available by the end of the year, a senior official said. of the administration.
The campaign will likely be compressed into a short period of time, around four to six weeks, to eliminate any delay between the time Americans are alerted to the vaccine and then can be vaccinated, the official said during a press conference.
“The fine line we are walking is enthusing Americans about vaccines and the lost expectations compared to having a lot of vaccines in stock and not so many people wanting to get it,” the official said.
“You may not hear much about promoting vaccines on the airwaves in August and September, but you will be overwhelmed when November comes.”
The official warned that there is still uncertainty as to when a vaccine will actually be available. The doses could be available as early as October or as late as January, he said.
He also added that the details of the communications campaign will vary according to the subgroups of the population that the vaccines show to be more likely to benefit, which will be determined as data is read from ongoing clinical trials.
Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) and Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) on Monday launched two trials of 30,000 subjects of COVID-19 vaccines that could open the way for regulatory approval and widespread use by the end of this year.
British pharmacist AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L) said it will begin large-scale trials in the United States this summer of its vaccine.
The U.S. government has begun preparing to distribute the vaccines, including talking to private companies about the development of technology to track their implementation and monitor who received them.
(Report by Carl O’Donnell; Richard Pullin Edition)
