The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has notified the health authorities of the 50 states of the country to
prepare to be able to distribute a vaccine against the coronavirus as soon as the beginning of November or the end of October
.
Specifically, the CDC has asked governors to expedite their applications for the necessary permits to operate the distribution centers.
"The normal time to obtain these permits represents a significant barrier to the success of this crucial public health program," said Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, in a letter sent to all state leaders.
This document was sent last week,
The New York Times
reports
, while the president, Donald Trump, assured on the last day of the Republican National Convention that the COVID-19 vaccine would be ready before the end of the year. .
AstraZeneca and Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine begins new phase of testing
Sept.
1, 202000: 47
Trump has lobbied government agencies to speed up the process of obtaining the vaccine.
His insistence has worried public health experts about the adverse consequences that the massive distribution of a vaccine that has not passed through all the security filters could have.
[Russia declares itself the first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine. Scientists are skeptical]
"The timing for the initial launch in late October is of great concern due to the politicization of public health and its potential ramifications on security
,"
University of Arizona epidemiologist Saskia Popescu
told
The New York Times
.
"It's hard not to see this as an attempt to get a vaccine before the elections [on November 3]."
The country's leading expert on the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said during several media interviews in recent days that the vaccine could begin to be used in some sectors of the population before the clinical trials of the phase are completed. three (the last one), as long as the data on its efficacy and safety were broadly positive.
Food and Drug Control Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn also said this week that he would be willing to speed up the vaccine approval process with an emergency authorization before phase three ends.
[These groups would first receive the COVID-19 vaccine once it is approved]
Several vaccines are already in the last phase of studies in the United States and the government has signed contracts to buy millions of doses if the product is successful.
With information from The New York Times.