The Trump administration’s vaccine czar said the country could start rolling out a COVID-19 vaccine this week once it is approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief science adviser working on the government vaccine development initiative Operation Warp Speed, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he is hopeful the vaccine candidate from Pfizer, and its German partner BioNTech, will be approved for emergency use authorization by the FDA after an advisory panel recommends its approval on Dec. 10.
“I expect them to recommend approval based on the data I’m aware of, and I saw the vaccine is highly effective. The vaccine is safe. Its safety profile is compared to many other vaccines that have been in use for years and decades,” Slaoui said on Sunday. “Overall, I really hope they do it quickly and that the vaccine will be available to our population starting later this week.”
An advisory panel comprised of medical experts will help the FDA review the vaccine before a decision is made to grant the candidate EUA.
Operation Warp Speed officials want to start distributing the vaccine within 24 hours of FDA authorization, with millions of doses targeted to become available this month.
Last month, Pfizer announced that it had a vaccine candidate that was 95% effective. The company has said it is not affiliated with Operation Warp Speed.
The first doses of the vaccines are recommended to go to healthcare workers and long-term care residents who are considered highly vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19.
Over 14 million people in the country have contracted the virus, which has killed over 280,000 people.
