Corona Vaccination Could Start In the US on Monday

After the approval of the first corona vaccine in the US, vaccination could start there on Monday. The existing doses of the approved vaccine from German pharmaceutical company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer are currently being packaged, a White House representative said on Saturday. On Sunday, these cans would initially be delivered to more than 600 locations.

Perna is responsible for the logistics of Operation Warp Speed, the White House vaccination project. The corona vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer received emergency approval in the United States on Friday evening (local time). It can now be used on people aged 16 and over.

The elected US President Donald Trump had previously promised his compatriots that vaccination should start this weekend. "The first vaccine will be administered in less than 24 hours," Trump said in a video published on Twitter. However, his health minister Alex Azar had spoken of "Monday or Tuesday".

According to media reports, the White House threatened the head of the FDA, Stephen Hahn, with urgent approval of the vaccine. The Washington Post reported that the White House chief of staff has asked Hahn to submit the resignation if the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine is not approved before the end of the day. The New York Times reported that Meadows had told Hahn that if he did not, he should consider looking for another job.

The FDA contradicted these reports. Hahn himself spoke in a statement to the US media about "an untrue representation of the phone call with the chief of staff". The FDA was "encouraged" to process the application from BioNTech and Pfizer quickly. "Science and data guided the FDA's decision," stressed Hahn at a press conference on Saturday. Due to the urgency of the pandemic, the approval process, which usually took months, could be shortened to several weeks - especially because the responsible employees worked day and night, said Hahn. "External pressure" played no role in this.

The number of infections in the USA has meanwhile reached a new high of 231,775. In addition, 3,309 deaths were reported on Saturday morning. This means that the corona deaths recorded within 24 hours in the USA have reached a new high. The highest value to date was recorded last Wednesday with 3,124 deaths. In total, more than 15.8 million people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 295,522 people have died from the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen.