OLIVE BRANCH, Mississeny (AP) – Workers began packaging the second U.S.-authorized COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday, a boost that desperately needed efforts to control the coronavirus pandemic.
Employees of a factory in the Memphis area were preparing the vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health. The much-needed shots are expected to take place from Monday, just three days away after the Food and Drug Administration authorized its emergency release.
Later Sunday, a committee of experts will discuss who should be next in line for early doses of the Modern vaccine and a similar one from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech of Germany. Pfizer shots were sent for the first time a week ago and started using the next day, launching the largest vaccination campaign in the country.
Public health experts say the traits (and others in progress) are the only way to stop a virus that has spread wildly. Nationwide, more than 219,000 people a day test positive for the virus, which has killed more than 314,000 in the United States and nearly 1.7 million worldwide.
The Pfizer and Moderna shots sent so far and coming out over the next few weeks are almost all aimed at health workers and long-term care home residents, according to the Advisory Committee’s advice on immunization practices.
This panel meets on Sunday to discuss who should get the available doses after these first shots were given.
There will not be enough prey for the general population until spring, so doses will be rationed at least over the next few months.
Panel members opt to put “essential workers” at the forefront, because people like bus drivers, grocery store employees, and others are the ones who get infected most often. But other experts say people 65 and older should be next, along with people with certain medical conditions, because they are the Americans who die at the highest rates.
The advice of the panel of experts is almost always approved by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Regardless of what the CDC says, there will be differences from state to state, because their health departments have different ideas about who should be closer to the front line.
Both the new Modern vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine require two several-week separation doses. The second dose should be from the same company as the first. Both vaccines appeared safe and strongly protective in large yet unfinished studies.