THE FIRST LORRIES carrying the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for widespread use in the US have left the company’s Michigan factory today as the global death toll from the coronavirus topped 1.6 million.
Doses will be shipped out in boxes containing dry ice that are capable of staying at -70 degrees Celsius, the temperature needed to preserve the drug.
General Gus Perna, who is overseeing the massive logistical operation as part of the government’s Operation Warp Speed, likened the moment to D-Day, a turning point of World War II.
“I am absolutely 100 percent confident that we are going to distribute safely, this precious commodity, this vaccine, needed to defeat the enemy Covid,” he told reporters.
Infections in the United States are soaring, with 1.1 million new cases confirmed in the past five days and the death toll nearing 300,000.
Breaking - UPS and FedEx trucks carrying the first U.S. shipment of coronavirus vaccine have left Pfizer’s facility near Kalamazoo, Michigan. pic.twitter.com/Cf32ki9gCF
— Pete Muntean (@petemuntean) December 13, 2020
Over the past two weeks, the US has repeatedly exceeded 2,000 Covid-related deaths per day, rivaling tolls from the early days of the pandemic.
Perna said hundreds of sites, including hospitals and other distribution centers, would receive the vaccines from Monday to Wednesday, which would cover the first wave of about three million people to be vaccinated.
Federal health authorities have recommended that healthcare workers and nursing home residents be at the front of the line, but the final decisions have been left to states.
The US is seeking to vaccinate 20 million people this month alone.
The US became the sixth country to green-light the Pfizer vaccine on Friday night, after the UK, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
The vaccine has been shown in a clinical trial of 44,000 people to be 95% effective, and no serious safety concerns have been identified.
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