Saturday, November 21, 2020
Jayne Miller, WBAL-TV 11
Among the first of the questions that lie ahead for a potential coronavirus vaccine are who will get the vaccine and when?
If all goes well, the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine could be available by the end of the year, according to a John Hopkins University expert. But that's where the questions start.
How long will it take the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to review the coronavirus vaccine candidate?
Who will get an authorized vaccine first?
The FDA's emergency authorization of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine candidate is expected within weeks.
"All the vaccine trial data will need to go through independent review, but we are anticipating the FDA will issue emergency use authorization in early to mid-December, and then, there will be vaccines ready to go," said Dr. Bill Moss, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's International Vaccine Access Center.
A briefing Friday by Johns Hopkins spelled out the next steps. An estimated 22 million doses would be available first and will likely be targeted to two groups of people: health care workers and nursing homes residents. A broader distribution would come later.
"People are guessing, including my guess, that perhaps by mid-2021, maybe later, mid 2021 is an optimistic projection assuming there are no problems with vaccine manufacturing," Moss said.
Vaccine experts and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sketched out the challenges that lie ahead -- including big one: public acceptance.
"Its effectiveness will depend on how many people will take the vaccine, and we've felt we're left with a significant problem, that there is a great deal of skepticism about vaccines in general, about science in general, that we have to overcome," Fauci said.
There are hurdles. The Pfizer vaccine requires ultra-cold storage and two doses. It's unknown how well a vaccine will work.
"We do not yet know the duration of protection from these vaccines. That's going to require further follow-up. We don't know whether these vaccines actually prevent infection and transmission of the virus," Moss said. "What we are learning from the phase three trials are whether they prevent disease, that's going to need to be studied, and we still don't know the long-term side effects of these vaccines. That, too, will come out in longer term follow-up."
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel is scheduled to meet Monday to consider how a vaccine will be allocated at the federal level. It will be up to state and local officials to carry it out.