The first ships of the COVID-19 vaccine were left in trucks and planes early Sunday morning, launching a historic effort to stem the tide of an epidemic that is killing more than 2,400 lives a day in the United States.
At 6:30 a.m. ET (1130 GMT), masked workers at a Pfizer Inc. factory in Michigan began sealing the vaccine developed with German partner Bioendech SE in dry ice.
Trucks carrying boxed, refrigerated vaccine boards began to roll from the Kalamazoo facility at 8:29 p.m. These displays were loaded on FedEx and United Parcel Service aircraft, which would clear valuable cargo across the country.
U.S. hospitals are preparing to make the first shots on Monday, but it will take months for most Americans to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Healthcare workers and seniors in long-term care homes are the first to line up to receive two-dose regulatory vaccines given at three-week intervals.
By the end of March, more than 100 million people, or about 30% of the U.S. population, could be vaccinated, Dr. Moncef Slavy, chief adviser on Operation Warp Speed, told Fox News on Sunday.
This will further reduce the herd immunity that will prevent the spread of the virus to the country, so masks and social distances will be required for several months to control the outbreak.
Health officials will also have to overcome widespread reluctance about new vaccines, worrying that many Americans may have compromised on the record speed protection they have created. According to a Reuters / Ipsos poll, only 61% of US respondents are willing to be vaccinated.
“However, it is important that the majority of the American people decide to accept the vaccine,” Slavy said. “We’m very worried about the reluctance we see.”
Massive logistics effort is further complicated by transporting and storing the Pfizer / Bioendech vaccine at minus 70 Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit), which requires plenty of dry ice or a special ultra-cold freezer.
Workers clapped and whistled as the first boxes went to the trucks. With the death toll in the United States approaching 300,000, the long-awaited moment has come and the incidence of infections and hospitalization sets daily records. Some models estimate that deaths could reach 500,000 before the vaccine became widely available in the spring and summer.
The United States hopes to distribute about 40 million doses of the vaccine by the end of December, which includes both Pfizer and Modernna Inc., he said. An external FDA advisory panel is scheduled to consider the modern vaccine on Thursday, with emergency use expected soon.
Although the federal government is coordinating distribution efforts, states have a final say on who gets the first shots. The federal government is sending the first ships to more than 600 destinations to vaccinate millions and get them back to life free from the fear of a deadly disease.
The Pfizer / Bioentech vaccine was 95% effective in preventing disease in a major clinical trial. It is not yet known whether this prevents the spread or spread of COVID-19 infection by vaccinators.
Within a year of the first cases being reported in the United States, following similar moves by the UK and Canada, U.S. regulators approved the emergency use of the vaccine late Friday.
Familiar UPS and FedEx package delivery drivers prefer vaccines over holiday gifts and other parcels because health officials are urging the public to avoid holiday meetings after hospitalization and Thanksgiving on deaths.
Both companies specialize in handling fragile medical products and do not allow for error. They provide temperature and location tracking for backup devices embedded in Pfizer boxes, and monitor each vessel throughout its voyage.
© 2020 Thompson / Reuters. All rights reserved.