Illustration of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine
Atès Ruvic | Reuters
Johnson & Johnson has not manufactured a large dose of the single-shot Covid-19 vaccine before its regulatory clearance scheduled for this month.
The administration has learned in recent weeks that J&J will only have “a few million” doses ready when the vaccine is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, said Jeff Zients, President Joe Biden’s Tsar Covid , to reporters during a White News pandemic news.
Federal and state health officials expected the supply of vaccines to increase rapidly following the emergency use of the J&J vaccine. The FDA has scheduled a meeting of its advisory committee on vaccines and related biological products on 26 of February to discuss the vaccine and the United States could authorize the vaccine the next day.
J&J currently has an agreement with the U.S. government to supply 100 million doses of its vaccine by the end of June, Zients said. Assuming the vaccine is authorized, the Biden administration will work with J&J to increase supply as soon as possible, he said, adding that U.S. officials expect many of these doses to be available in the first few months of the year. its release.
“We are doing our best to work with the company to speed up the delivery schedule,” he said.
The news comes as the Biden administration is working to increase the supply of doses after states complained that the demand for shots quickly exceeded supply. Approximately 39.7 million out of 331 million Americans have received at least the first dose of two-dose vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 15 million of those people have already gotten their second shot.
Biden announced Thursday that the U.S. had secured 100 million more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 100 million more of the Modern vaccine, increasing the total U.S. supply to 600 million doses. Because vaccines require two doses, a total of 600 million doses would be enough to inoculate 300 million Americans.
And a few days later, on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced that the Biden administration was increasing the number of doses of Covid-19 vaccine that were sent weekly to states, sending 13.5 million doses this week and doubled retail pharmacies.
This is a developing story. Please check for updates again.