The United States intends to prioritize the elderly, citizens with medical histories and so-called essential workers after finding a Covid-19 vaccine, a senior Trump administration official said on Tuesday.
Read also: Françoise Barré Sinoussi-Frédérique Vidal: "Getting a vaccine before school starts seems utopian"
As part of Operation Warp Speed , the US government hopes to deliver 300 million doses of vaccine by January 2021 (almost the equivalent of the American population), through funding and support for laboratories.
" Before any vaccine is approved or authorized, Operation Warp Speed will put in place the plans and infrastructure necessary to distribute it, " said the official. Authorities are considering distributing the vaccine according to a long-standing methodology for influenza pandemics.
" The elderly, those with a medical history and those providing essential services would have priority, " said the official. " However, which populations can and should receive a vaccine, it will depend on the results of clinical trials ," he added.
A second official stressed that the safety of the candidate vaccines was not yet known, and that it might turn out that they were not suitable for certain demographic categories. In addition, added this official, " we expect that there will be (...) 20, 30, 40 million Americans who will probably have strong antibodies to the coronavirus by the end of the year , they would therefore be much lower priority ”.
Although the development of a strong vaccine is not 100% guaranteed, officials said the goal was to have enough vaccines by the peak of the next flu season to vaccinate those vulnerable and wanting a vaccine .
Insurance companies have said they will supply the vaccines to customers at no additional cost, officials said. Among the main vaccine candidates is that developed by AstraZeneca with the University of Oxford, which will enter the last phase of trials this summer.
Read also: Coronavirus: Europe reserves 400 million vaccines