Pfizer and Moderna recently announced their phase III COVID vaccine trial results, each declaring their candidates more than 90 percent effective and safe for use. This uplifting news couldn’t have come at a more desperate time, as America’s coronavirus death toll tragically topped a quarter of a million people this week.
Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), spoke with NPR’s Morning Edition to shed light on what might come next: chiefly, when the first doses of the COVID vaccine will become available, and who will be first in line to be inoculated once they are. Read on to hear what he had to say, and for more on the COVID vaccine, check out Dr. Fauci Says This Many People Need to Get Vaccinated to Stop COVID.
“The timeline of getting the doses into the vials and available for vaccination are going to be a graded process,” Fauci began. “It’s not going to happen all at once.” As he explained, both candidates are currently in the process of filing for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and pursuing licensure.
The first round of vaccinations could be given as soon as the end of next month—meaning Dec. 2020—to people on a “priority list” that will be determined by an advisory committee and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The list, Fauci said, will be driven by dual purposes of protecting those most at risk and reopening the economy. Read on to find out who will likely top the list, and for more advice from Fauci, check out the 4 Places Dr. Fauci Says He Wouldn’t Go Right Now.
“We hope that we’ll be getting vaccine into people [in December],” Fauci told NPR. “The recommendation of who that will be will be finalized by the CDC—[but it] likely will be health care workers.” And for more updates on getting inoculated, You Need to Quit This Bad Habit Before Getting a COVID Vaccine, Study Says.