If all goes well, Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine could start being distributed "within days," followed closely by Moderna's after its hearing with the Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 17, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Monday.
"We are getting ready for rollout within days," Azar said on Fox News' "Fox & Friends." "That's why tomorrow President [Donald] Trump is hosting a vaccine distribution summit with many of our governors, our retail pharmacy chains and our distributors like McKesson, FedEx, and UPS to be very transparent and show the world how comprehensively we have planned out every aspect of this distribution."
Azar said there will be 40 million doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines at first, with 20 million to be held back for the second dose recipients will require.
According to a Washington Post report, the 40 million doses are far short of the 300 million vaccines from AstraZeneca that had been promised back in May from the government. The shortfall is being blamed on supply issues, and Azar said Monday the Post's report requires clarification.
"We always said the goal was by the end of December to have in the tens of millions of doses of vaccine," said Azar. "We will have 40 million immediately releasable and comparable amounts still going through quality control ... by the second quarter of next year, every American who wants a vaccine should be able to get one," he said.
Azar also commented on lockdowns taking place in California and elsewhere, saying it's important for state and local leaders to use mitigation efforts that are based on science and evidence.
"We are going to lose the willingness of people to comply with these things if we don't take steps based in data and science," said Azar, including decisions to close schools, flying in planes, or going to work, as those are not "major factors" in transmitting COVID-19.
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