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New York could run out of vaccine stock by next week's end: mayor
New York (AFP) - New York City could run out of its Covid-19 vaccine stock "by the end of next week," Mayor Bill de Blasio told journalists Tuesday, calling on the federal government and laboratories to prevent a dearth of doses. "The federal structure is going way too slow in terms of getting vaccine to us," de Blasio said, echoing similar criticisms leveled by President-elect Joe Biden. After a slow start in administering vaccinations, the most populous city in the United States has accelerated in recent days. Nearly a hundred sites began booking appointments starting Monday, and three large...
AFP
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Los Angeles converts Dodger Stadium test site into vaccine center
Los Angeles (AFP) - Los Angeles will convert its huge Dodger Stadium coronavirus testing site into a mass vaccination center this week, officials said, as the hard-hit city races to ramp up its sluggish inoculation program. Currently the nation's largest testing site, the baseball stadium's parking lot will be used to more than triple the daily vaccinations administered in the nation's second-largest city, and eventually serve 12,000 people daily, the mayor's office said. "From early on in this pandemic, Dodger Stadium has been home base for our testing infrastructure," Mayor Eric Garcetti sai...
AFP
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US begins rolling out Moderna vaccine: official
New York (AFP) - The first of millions of doses of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine were being prepared Saturday for shipping to locations across the United States, a top official said, hours after it was authorized for use in the hardest-hit country in the world. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced late Friday that it had granted emergency approval for the vaccine, a week after it did the same with the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech. "Distribution of the Moderna vaccine has already begun," said General Gus Perna, who is overseeing the massive logistical operation as part of the go...
AFP
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In US, vaccine operation soon to be put to the test
Washington (AFP) - Trucks and cargo planes are at the ready to distribute millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine across the United States, a complex task led by a four-star general that will ultimately proceed more slowly than initially expected. US Army General Gus Perna, in charge of logistics for the government's Operation Warp Speed, has been putting his troops -- a mix of soldiers and health experts -- through dry runs for weeks, in anticipation of the day when a vaccine is approved. The US Food and Drug Administration is due to grant emergency use approval to the vaccines made by Pfize...
AFP
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First in line for Covid vaccine? Some US health care workers say no
New York (AFP) - They can move to front of the line for a Covid-19 vaccine if they want, but some US health care workers are skeptical about taking a vaccine that was developed in record time -- even as the pandemic rages on. Some want more time, despite assurances from experts that they trust the vaccine vetting process carried out by the US Food and Drug Administration. "I think I would take the vaccine later on, but right now I am a little leery of it," nurse Yolanda Dodson, 55, told AFP. Dodson works at the Montefiore Hospital in New York City and spent the spring in the heart of the deadl...
AFP
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US expects 100 million people vaccinated by February
Washington (AFP) - The US hopes to have immunized 100 million people against Covid-19 by the end of February, a top official said Wednesday, which is approximately 40 percent of the country's adult population. The push should start within weeks, when vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna-NIH are expected to be approved. Each of these require two doses, the second after three weeks and four weeks, respectively. "Between mid-December, and the end of February, we will have potentially immunized 100 million people," Moncef Slaoui, scientific advisor to the government's Operation Warp S...
AFP
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Which Americans will get the Covid vaccine first?
Washington (AFP) - The Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines could be approved in a matter of weeks, but who in the United States will get them first? Though nothing has yet been decided, US experts may differ from other countries in prioritizing "critical workers" who keep society running -- potentially even before people at highest risk.To be clear, there won't be one single set of rules for the whole nation. At the risk of creating confusion, which was the case during the vaccine campaign against the H1N1 flu in 2009, the federal government only makes recommendations to states, who decide for t...
AFP
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US Operation Warp Speed backed vaccines for whole world
Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump's announcement in May of plans to develop a Covid-19 vaccine by year's end is near realization -- despite a setback among one of the six candidates that the US supported.The president described the effort as "a massive scientific, industrial and logistical endeavor unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project," alluding to the US program during World War II to develop a nuclear bomb.At the time Trump was accused of caring only about the US as the pandemic raged worldwide in what some derided as "vaccine nationalism."Trump called the...
AFP
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What are clinical trials and how do they work?
Washington (AFP) - To find out whether experimental Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective, researchers design clinical trials involving thousands of volunteers, divided into groups that receive either the drug under investigation or a placebo. Data from such trials have shown that two vaccines -- one developed by Pfizer and BioNtech, the other by Moderna and the US National Institutes of Health -- are about 95 percent effective.Here's a look at how trials work:Who leads clinical trials? - American pharmaceutical Pfizer itself has led and financed a clinical trial of its vaccine involving al...
AFP
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Planes, dry ice, pharmacies: the logistical challenges of Covid-19 vaccines
Washington (AFP) - The United States could be the first country to launch one of the most ambitious vaccine operations in history: distributing and administering up to 600 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine in just a few months.Massive vaccine campaigns are nothing new -- they have been carried out for decades in the fight against the measles and flu, for example. But stamping out the coronavirus is a distinctly new challenge due to three factors: the short time frame for inoculating a huge number of people, the fact that most vaccines will require two doses, and the very low temperature at w...
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