- A United States official has said that the coronavirus vaccines would be distributed in January.
- The official on Donald Trump’s team appears to contradict the president’s information on vaccines in the United States.
- The government “is accelerating” the production of vaccines for delivery in the United States in January, the official said.
Keep waiting. A United States government official said the coronavirus vaccines would be delivered in January 2021.
An official of the government President Donald Trump, who is leading the response to the coronavirus pandemic, said that the United States can expect to begin distributing a vaccine from January 2021, despite the president’s statements that inoculations could begin this month, reported the news agency A.P.
And according to a growing bipartisan set of lawmakers, experts and public health authorities, the country is ill-prepared for an expected increase in COVID-19 cases during the winter, the news agency said.
According to the AP, Dr. Robert Kadlec said in an email on Friday that the government “is accelerating the production of safe and effective vaccines … to guarantee their delivery from January 2021.” Kadlec is the undersecretary for preparedness and response for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Dr. Robert Kadlec, undersecretary for preparedness and response in the Department of Health and Human Services. Photo: AP
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The department said there is a possibility that a vaccine will be approved before the end of the year, but it will take time to distribute.
Trump has said at political rallies, debates and press conferences that a vaccine could be available in weeks.
“I think we can start sometime in October,” the president said at a press conference last month.
Kadlec is not the first health official to disagree with the president’s optimistic dates, according to the AP.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday that 100 million doses of vaccines could be available by the end of the year “pending clearance from the FDA,” the Food and Drug Administration.
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