In the US, the first doses of the vaccine from the pharmaceutical company Pfrizer began shipping on December 9. The company says it will produce enough vaccines for 25 million Americans by the end of this year. Front line health care workers are in high priority for this first injection.
Ms. Faye Christen – Nursing, LAC + USC Medical Center, USA said: “I am very excited to be one of the first to be vaccinated. We are at high risk of infection”.
US President Donald Trump, on December 8, signed a decree to ensure that 330 million Americans have priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine before it is made available to other countries. It is expected that this week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will grant emergency permits for vaccines from Prizer and BioNTech.
Mr. Rich Gates – Vice President of Walgreens Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Company, USA said: “Once the vaccine is ready, we will work with states on priority levels to ensure vaccines are injected to the right people and widely available, safe and effective.”
The United States is facing a dark winter when during the past week, on average, there were more than 200,000 new infections of COVID-19 each day. American health experts warn that vaccines may not help reduce the spread of the disease, at least until the end of next spring.
Most Americans are expected to have access to the COVID-19 vaccines by mid-next year, but not everyone is ready. Only more than 50% of Americans want the vaccine as soon as the COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, according to a recent poll.