The US will ship 6 million doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine straight after the FDA authorizes it - double its initial shipment of Pfizer's shot
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- The US plans to ship 6 million doses of Moderna's COVID-19 once it is authorized for emergency use, the head of logistics for Operation Warp Speed said during a press briefing Monday.
- This is double the US's initial shipment of 2.9 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine.
- "The difference in quantities was about what was available when we were doing planning for initial delivery," General Gustave Perna said.
- The US government has ordered 200 million doses of Moderna's vaccine in total. If the vaccine is approved, Moderna plans to deliver 20 million doses by the end of 2020.
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The US plans to ship 6 million doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizes it for emergency use, officials said Monday - more than double the nation's initial shipment of Pfizer's shot.
This approval is "likely" to come by as Friday, the head of the White House's vaccine effort said Sunday. A panel of FDA experts will review the vaccine Thursday.
General Gustave Perna, head of logistics for Operation Warp Speed, said during a press briefing Monday that the US will ship "just a little bit short of 6 million doses out to the American people" following approval.
"Our goal would be for the Moderna product to be available this time next week across the United States, so Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday ... the initial push being sent to all states across the country," Perna said Monday.
This is more than double the US's initial shipment of 2.9 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine.
"The difference in quantities was about what was available when we were doing planning for initial delivery," Perna said.
"As early as November 15, I snapped the chalk line on what was available to Pfizer so states could do planning ... We wanted them to have as much time to do planning and realize where they wanted it to go first.
"The key is we catch up in our following cadence and allocations," he added.
Moderna's initial doses will be packaged and distributed to 3,285 sites across the US - significantly more than for Pfizer's shot.
While Pfizer is shipping doses directly from its warehouses via FedEx and UPS because of its ultra-cold chain facilities, Moderna is using medical supply company McKesson, which in turn will work alongside FedEx and UPS for the final stages of delivery, Alex Azar, secretary of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said at the briefing.
The US is also setting aside additional doses of Moderna's vaccine for patients to get their second dose, Perna said. Moderna's vaccine consists of two doses, four weeks apart.
Alongside this, the government will keep further doses as a reserve, like it did with 500,000 doses from Pfizer, Perna added, but didn't say how many of Moderna's would be set aside.
Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine was the first COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized for emergency use in the US. A critical care nurse in New York became the first American to receive the shot on Monday.
The US government has ordered 200 million doses of Moderna's vaccine, including a second order of 100 million announced on Friday.
If the vaccine is approved, Moderna plans to deliver 20 million doses by the end of the month, then the rest over the first six months of 2021. The US also has the option to purchase a further 300 million doses.
Around 100 million Americans, or roughly a third of the population, could be fully vaccinated by the end of March, officials told the press briefing Monday. This is slightly later than previous estimates: Slaoui said on December 2 that 100 million Americans could be vaccinated by the end of February.
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