Post by t-bob on Dec 7, 2020 17:08:20 GMT -5
This is a critical week in the coronavirus vaccine approval process. On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration will release its evaluation of the safety and effectiveness data for the Pfizer vaccine candidate. On Thursday, there's an open meeting of the agency’s vaccine advisory committee. If everything goes as expected, the FDA could give a thumbs up in a matter of days. Here's a guide for what to watch this week.
Even if a vaccine is approved by Friday, it will take a while to see its effect. Speaking with CNN's New Day, the nation's top infectious-diseases expert Anthony S. Fauci said that in addition to the time it will take to distribute the doses, it will be “at least several weeks” before we see an impact on the mortality rate. “But it will come, I guarantee you,” Fauci said. “There's no doubt that vaccine is going to be able to turn this around.”
Moncef Slaoui, chief science adviser to Operation Warp Speed, predicted over the weekend that vaccines will lead to a “significant decrease" in deaths among the nation’s elderly by the end of January. Slaoui also said that the nation's “highly susceptible population,” about 100 million people, could be covered by vaccines by the middle of March.
All our hopes have rested on the development of a safe vaccine, and two of the front-runners have felt especially intense focus: one from Moderna and the other from Pfizer and BioNTech. They both used promising but still-experimental medical technology — a gamble that paid off in “spectacular success,” Fauci said. Here's how the leading coronavirus vaccines made it to the finish line.
Federal officials have slashed the number of vaccine doses they plan to ship to states this month. The Trump administration pledged around 300 million doses immediately after approval and before the end of 2020, but companies will actually ship about 10 percent of that. The new estimates have caused widespread confusion and concern in states, which are about to undertake massive vaccination campaigns.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, has contracted the coronavirus. The 76-year-old, who is being treated at Georgetown University Medical Center, traveled to Michigan, Arizona and Georgia last week and met indoors with state lawmakers to persuade them to overturn the election results. Giuliani was not wearing a mask during the meetings. The Arizona legislature is closing for a week because of the exposure.
Even if a vaccine is approved by Friday, it will take a while to see its effect. Speaking with CNN's New Day, the nation's top infectious-diseases expert Anthony S. Fauci said that in addition to the time it will take to distribute the doses, it will be “at least several weeks” before we see an impact on the mortality rate. “But it will come, I guarantee you,” Fauci said. “There's no doubt that vaccine is going to be able to turn this around.”
Moncef Slaoui, chief science adviser to Operation Warp Speed, predicted over the weekend that vaccines will lead to a “significant decrease" in deaths among the nation’s elderly by the end of January. Slaoui also said that the nation's “highly susceptible population,” about 100 million people, could be covered by vaccines by the middle of March.
All our hopes have rested on the development of a safe vaccine, and two of the front-runners have felt especially intense focus: one from Moderna and the other from Pfizer and BioNTech. They both used promising but still-experimental medical technology — a gamble that paid off in “spectacular success,” Fauci said. Here's how the leading coronavirus vaccines made it to the finish line.
Federal officials have slashed the number of vaccine doses they plan to ship to states this month. The Trump administration pledged around 300 million doses immediately after approval and before the end of 2020, but companies will actually ship about 10 percent of that. The new estimates have caused widespread confusion and concern in states, which are about to undertake massive vaccination campaigns.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, has contracted the coronavirus. The 76-year-old, who is being treated at Georgetown University Medical Center, traveled to Michigan, Arizona and Georgia last week and met indoors with state lawmakers to persuade them to overturn the election results. Giuliani was not wearing a mask during the meetings. The Arizona legislature is closing for a week because of the exposure.