Biden to announce his administration has secured 200 million additional vaccine doses promised
Source: Washington Post
President Biden is expected to announce Thursday afternoon that his administration has secured deals for another 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccine as promised last month, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss it.
The president is scheduled to tour the National Institutes of Health on Thursday afternoon and deliver remarks to staff there. He had indicated last month his administration was seeking another 200 million doses of the two vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States to be available this summer — 100 million of the product developed by Pfizer and German company BioNTech, and 100 million of the product developed by Moderna. The White House declined to comment on the announcement.
The schedule for delivery of the additional doses was not immediately clear. The new deals are unlikely to make vaccine widely available much sooner than originally anticipated, but they would prevent a shortfall later in the year. The administration was exercising options built into existing contracts with the two companies, making timing a central question. A Pfizer executive said in a recent interview with USA Today that the company expects to halve its production time, expediting the availability of its product globally.
The purchases increase supply in the United States by 50 percent, bringing the total to 600 million doses. Because both products are two-dose regimens, that would be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million people. An estimated 260 million people in the United States are currently considered eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine, though trials involving children as young as 12 could widen the pool.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/02/11/vaccine-supply-biden/
Full headline: Biden to announce his administration has secured 200 million additional vaccine doses promised last month
= new reply since forum marked as read
