Alex Azhar, head of health and human services, predicts that all nursing home residents in the country will be vaccinated against the corona virus by the end of Christmas on Sunday – the first dose of the vaccine will be shipped from Pfizer’s Michigan plant.
“Vaccines are released as soon as they are received. This is according to the governors’ request to send the ship to them, ”Azhar told CBS “Face the nation.”
“Every nursing home patient can be vaccinated through Christmas in the United States. This is truly a remarkable, significant opportunity for all of us who have loved ones in nursing homes to approach Christmas with that level of comfort so that our loved ones already have some early protection,” he said.
But anchor Margaret Brennan questioned why pharmacy chain CVS recently said it would not begin distributing the vaccine to nursing homes until December 21 on the orders of the White House.
Azhar replied that there was a “misunderstanding” instead.
“We did not really tell Nursing Homes to wait. We were able to have a good discussion with the CVS leadership about this misunderstanding they had at the Presidential Vaccine Distribution Summit,” Azhar said.
“So, we’re all straight with them, vaccinating CVS and Walkreens people in our nursing home.”
He said nearly 100 percent of the country’s nursing homes have signed up for the vaccine.
Azhar also predicts that 100 million doses will be delivered by the end of February – pointing out that the number of doses could increase significantly if the modern vaccine is approved by the Food and Drug Administration by the end of the week.