Trump and CDC: Coronavirus vaccine deliveries will begin early December

Trump and CDC: Coronavirus vaccine deliveries will begin early December

During a special Thanksgiving message to U.S. troops, President Trump Donald Trump said that coronavirus vaccine deliveries will begin as early as next week.

“The whole world is suffering and we are rounding the curve,” Trump said. “And the vaccines are being delivered next week or the week after.”

…He also argued that his opponent, President-elect Joe Biden, should not be given credit for the vaccines, which he referred to as a “medical miracle” before repeating claims of voting irregularities in the 2020 election.

“Joe Biden failed with the swine flu, H1N1, totally failed with the swine flu,” Trump said. “Don’t let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me and I pushed people harder than they’ve ever been pushed before and we got that approved and through and nobody’s ever seen anything like it.

Trump’s statement also aligns with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield indicating that a coronavirus vaccine will begin to become available in this country “probably by the end of the second week in December.”

Redfield told “The Daily Briefing” that a vaccine would initially be made available “in a hierarchical way” with priority going to “nursing home residents and then some combination of health care providers and individuals at high risk for a poor outcome.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has scheduled a Dec. 10 meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to discuss Pfizer’s request for emergency use authorization (EUA) of its vaccine candidate.

Last week, Pfizer and German partner BioNTech announced that their vaccine candidate is 95% effective against COVID-19 in a large, ongoing study. The FDA can grant an EUA before the final testing is fully complete.

In preparation for the beginning of widespread vaccinations, doctors want public health officials and drugmakers to warn people that coronavirus vaccine shots may have some rough side effects. Hence, they know what to expect and are willing to get the second dose.

Dr. Sandra Fryhofer of the American Medical Association said both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines require two doses at varying intervals. As a practicing physician, she said she worries whether her patients will come back for a second dose because of the potentially unpleasant side effects they may experience after the first shot.

“We really need to make patients aware that this is not going to be a walk in the park,” Fryhofer said during a virtual meeting with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, an outside group of medical experts that advise the CDC. She is also a liaison to the committee. “They are going to know they had a vaccine. They are probably not going to feel wonderful. But they’ve got to come back for that second dose.”

Participants in Moderna and Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine trials told CNBC in September that they were experiencing high fever, body aches, bad headaches, daylong exhaustion and other symptoms after receiving the shots. While the symptoms were uncomfortable, and at times intense, the participants said they often went away after a day, sometimes sooner, and that it was better than getting Covid-19.

Additionally, UPS has increased dry ice production ahead of the anticipated volume of shipments.

As part of these enhancements, UPS Healthcare now can produce up to 1,200 lbs. of dry ice per hour in its U.S. facilities to support the storage and transportation of cold chain products, such as frozen vaccines, in accordance with manufacturer storage requirements. The increased production also allows UPS to make dry ice available for U.S. and Canadian hospitals, clinics and other points of care requiring dry ice to store vaccines locally. Dry ice will be sourced at UPS Worldport® and can be available next day.

A major spike in demand is causing logistics providers to plan for what some analysts fear may be a dry ice shortage, as pharmaceutical companies strategize getting hundreds of millions of their vaccine doses safely to communities around the U.S. and internationally.

“Enhancing our dry ice production capabilities increases our supply chain agility and reliability immensely when it comes to handling complex vaccines for our customers,” says Wes Wheeler, president of UPS Healthcare. “Healthcare facilities in Louisville, Dallas and Ontario will ensure we have the capability to produce dry ice to sufficiently pack and replenish shipments as needed to keep products viable and effective.”

The first report of American coronavirus infections was in February. Now the country is poised to distribute vaccines across the nation. This is an amazing testament to American ingenuity and President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed….and something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.