The vaccine against covid-19 could be advanced 1:29
(CNN) -
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has told U.S. public health officials to prepare to distribute a possible coronavirus vaccine. By the end of october.
They also provided planning scenarios to help states prepare.
The documents were published by
The New York Times
and the CDC confirmed to CNN that it sent them to state and local public health officials.
The scenarios provide details on the distribution of two covid-19 vaccines when supplies "may be limited."
They have also informed states who should get vaccinated first: healthcare professionals, essential workers, national security "populations" and residents and staff of long-term care facilities.
"These scenarios are designed to support partner, federal and jurisdictional planning, but are still considered hypothetical," a document reads.
Scenario documents do not necessarily mean that a vaccine will be available in late October.
Planning exercises for a pandemic have for years included recommendations that the federal government prepare a distribution network while scientists work on a vaccine.
The Donald Trump administration has said it is doing this.
The companies that develop the vaccines are already ramping up manufacturing so that if one or more are found to be safe and effective in people, they can begin assembling immediately.
CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield said it's simple preparation.
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“Right now I will say that we are seriously preparing for what I anticipate will be reality… that there will be one or more vaccines available to us in November, December, and we need to figure out how to make sure they are distributed fairly and equitably throughout the country, ”Redfield said during an interview with Yahoo Finance.
CNN reported last week that Redfield had asked states to quickly approve permits for pharmaceutical and medical supply company McKesson to help distribute any potential coronavirus vaccines.
In a letter, Redfield asked them to waive any requirements that might hinder the distribution of vaccines before November 1, before Election Day, and weeks, if not months, before most experts expect them to. any vaccine is fully tested.
The director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, said he does not read this as if the CDC is preparing to launch a vaccine.
He said it is only in case one of the vaccines being tested now shows clear and rapid evidence that it is protecting people.
"Now, you have to keep in mind that the probability of that happening is quite low," Collins told CNN.
"This is like the Boy Scout motto, 'always ready,'" he said.
“Even if it's highly unlikely, if everything went well and we had an answer by then and we knew we had a vaccine that is safe and effective, wouldn't you want people to be ready to figure out how to do the distribution?
That's all the CDC says. "
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said he is confident that there will be a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year.
"I think by the time we get to the end of this calendar year, we will feel comfortable having a safe and effective vaccine," Fauci said on NBC's Today Show.
"The COVID-19 vaccine landscape is evolving and uncertain, and these scenarios may evolve as more information becomes available," advises one of the scenario documents.
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Members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, including U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, have recently said that it is The FDA may be able to authorize an experimental COVID-19 vaccine before large Phase 3 trials are completed, if data shows a vaccine that is safe and effective.
There are currently three vaccines in Phase 3 trials in the United States: those developed by Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases;
Pfizer and BioNTech;
and AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
CNN's Andrea Kane, Shelby Lin Erdman, and Kristen Holmes contributed to this report.
Vaccine