The U.S. says the state will start vaccination with COVID-19 on Monday

From Washington-US officials state the first US COVID-19 vaccine on Monday morning after the government gave the final go-ahead to the shots needed to end the outbreak that killed nearly 300,000 Americans. Said to start arriving at.

Army General Gustav Perna of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine development program, said on Sunday morning that shipping companies UPS and FedEx began delivering Pfizer vaccines to about 150 distribution centers in the state. Said it will be deployed. An additional 425 sites will ship on Tuesday and the remaining 66 sites will ship on Wednesday.

Initially, it was expected to ship about 3 million times nationwide.I didn’t know exactly who would receive the first shot, Health care Workers and residents of nursing homes were priorities. Perna said health officials would decide.

A second dose of these recipients, which is required for complete protection from COVID-19, suppresses a similar number of shots.

The announcement on Saturday will launch a large-scale logistics activity involving federal, state, private sector, and healthcare professionals to expedite a limited supply of vaccines throughout the United States. There is growing concern that things will get worse as hospitals and people get together during the holidays.

Perna compared vaccine distribution efforts with D-Day, a US-led military attack that changed the course of World War II.

“D-Day was the beginning of the end, and that’s where we are today,” Perna said at a press conference. But he added, “It takes months of work and” diligence, courage, and strength “to finally win.”

Maine Health, a network of 12 hospitals based in Portland, plans about 2,000 initial deliveries. vaccine Dr. Dramils, Chief Health Improvement Officer, tells doctors, nurses and others who are at risk in treating patients with COVID-19.

“It’s almost difficult to speak without tears,” Mills said on Saturday. “This vaccine sheds light at the end of the tunnel.”

First shipment leaves Pfizer’s manufacturing plant Kalamazoo, Michigan, truck, then fly to regional hubs across the country. Healthcare distributor McKesson and pharmacy chains, including CVS and Rite Aid, are also involved in the initial deployment and vaccination at nursing homes and assisted living centers.

For critical distribution challenges, vaccines co-developed with BioNTech must be stored and shipped at ultra-low temperatures of approximately 94 degrees below freezing. Pfizer has developed a shipping container that uses dry ice. GPS-enabled sensors allow companies to track each shipment and keep it cool.

Distribution hubs are primarily large hospitals and other facilities that can meet these ultra-low temperature storage requirements. Within 3 weeks vaccine According to Perna, it should be delivered to all vaccination sites identified by the state, including local pharmacies.

The vaccines were timed to arrive on Monday, so health care workers could take shots and start giving them, Perna said.

Workers at Mount Sinai Hospital System in New York conducted a dry run this week in preparation for shipment. In a clean room, pharmacists practiced giving training vaccines separately to keep the freezer at a temperature lower than that of Antarctica.

“Not many people have been vaccinated against such an epidemic,” said Susan Mashni, vice president of pharmacy at Mount Sinai. “So we want to make sure it’s done correctly. There are a lot of different moving parts and parts.”

At a meeting of a panel of experts advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Vaccines, local health officials to ensure that vaccines are distributed fairly and to those in need most and to alleviate people’s concerns about receiving injections. Said that he was having a hard time.

However, “the funds needed by the state and local health departments to implement this program have been frozen,” said Jeffrey Duchin, a Seattle physician representing the National Association of County and Municipal Health Officials. The doctor says.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the emergency use of the vaccine late Friday. It ended the unprecedented global competition for speeding up vaccines through testing and review, chopping years from the normal development process.

The FDA has determined that the vaccine is very defensive, with no major safety issues. US regulators worked for months to emphasize the rigor and independence of the review, but President Donald Trump’s administration put pressure on the authorities until the final announcement. White House executives even threatened to dismiss FDA chief Steven Hahn if a ruling wasn’t made by Saturday.

Concerns about rushing firing can undermine vaccination efforts in countries where skepticism about vaccines is deeply rooted.

“Science and data led the FDA’s decision,” Hahn said Saturday. “We worked swiftly because of the urgency of this pandemic, not because of other external pressures.”

Although the vaccine has been determined to be safe, UK regulators are investigating several severe allergic reactions. The FDA’s instructions tell providers not to give it to people with a known history of severe allergic reactions to any of its ingredients.

Dr. Peter Marks, FDA’s vaccine director, said the FDA will carefully track reports of allergic reactions in the United States.

Next week, the FDA will consider vaccines from Moderna and the National Institutes of Health, which appear to be about as protective as Pfizer’s injections. On Friday, the Trump administration said it had purchased the vaccine 100 million more times in addition to the 100 million it had previously ordered.

The announcement comes after the White House revealed in the second quarter of 2021 that it had chosen not to receive an additional 100 million doses of Pfizer vaccine. The Trump administration claims that in addition to the current orders, pipeline orders are sufficient to accommodate Americans. Those who want to be vaccinated by the end of the second quarter of 2021.

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Stobbe reported from New York and Scolforo from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press Medical Writer in Alexandria, Virginia, Marshall Ritzel, Video Journalist, and Candice Choi, Health Writer in New York, contributed to the story.

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The Associated Press’s Department of Health Sciences is supported by the Department of Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. AP is solely responsible for all content content.