US COVID-19 vaccination rollout expands as authorities profess vaccine safety

Newark, NJ (Reuters)-The United States expanded its newly approved COVID-19 vaccine deployment to hundreds of additional distribution centers on Tuesday, a group expected to reach the general public within the next few months. Thousands more health workers were vaccinated.

The distribution of the vaccine, developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE, begins on Monday, three days after obtaining a US emergency use authorization, and is a pandemic that kills more than 2,400 Americans a day. Opened a new front in the fight against.

Political leaders and medical authorities are two-sided media blitz claiming vaccine safety, encouraging Americans to remain diligent about social distance and wearing masks until vaccination becomes widely available. It was started.

“As a survivor of polio, I am very much in favor of vaccination. Whenever it’s my turn, I absolutely take the vaccine and play my part in reassuring suspicious people. That’s the right thing to do for yourself, for your family, and for your country, “Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Twitter.

At the University Hospital in Newark, NJ, emergency room nurse Maritza Benikes became the first person to be vaccinated on Tuesday at one of the many moments for television across the country.

“I couldn’t wait for this moment to hit New Jersey. I couldn’t wait for it to hit the United States,” Beniquez said he was vaccinated under the watchful eye of Governor Phil Murphy.

Initial doses are assigned to doctors, nurses, other front-line healthcare professionals, and residents and staff of nursing homes. Other important workers, the elderly, and individuals with chronic medical conditions are next.

According to US officials, it will probably take months until late spring before the vaccine will be available at the request of the general public.

Meanwhile, infectious diseases and a surge in hospitalizations approaching 111,000 patients being treated on Tuesday continued to strain the healthcare system on the brink of collapse in urban and rural areas across the country.

Nationally, the highly contagious respiratory virus killed 301,085 people and infected at least 16.5 million people as of Monday, according to official Reuters data.

Refrigerator unit, corpse bag

In California, many hospitals have little or no capacity available in the intensive care unit, so the state ordered a large number of corpse refrigerator storage trailers and 5,000 corpse bags in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Inyo counties. It was distributed, Governor Gavin Newsom said.

Newsom also said the state had begun talks with the federal government to activate mass-dead compacts among county coroners and send military medical ships back to the struck state coast.

A bipartisan group of seven governors from Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin released a joint video on social media on Tuesday to help residents travel unnecessarily. I urged you to avoid social gatherings outside the house. And for all. “

Another Moderna Inc vaccine appeared to be approved by regulators this week after US Food and Drug Administration staff approved it as safe and effective in a document released Tuesday. Like the Pfizer vaccine, it should be given twice every few weeks.

By late Monday, shipments of Pfizer vaccines requiring subarctic level refrigeration had arrived at almost all of the 145 pre-selected US distribution sites to receive the first batch of doses.

The second round of shipments took place on Tuesday, with an additional 425 distribution hubs, and the third round was directed to 66 additional sites on Wednesday. Overall, US authorities are aiming for 2.9 million doses by the weekend.

In addition to the logistical challenges posed by an unparalleled range of vaccination programs beyond the 1950s and 1960s pediatric polio vaccination campaigns, health officials face the major challenge of overcoming widespread skepticism about common vaccines. Facing

Some Americans believe that a pandemic is a hoax and reject public health guidelines for wearing masks to avoid crowds. In a recent Reuters / Ipsos poll, only 61% said they were ready to be vaccinated.

Most vaccines take years to develop, but the Pfizer vaccine arrived less than a year after the disease was tracked in Wuhan, China at the end of last year.

“People are naturally skeptical of speed, but the need to continue to emphasize speed means that science is extraordinary,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He told ABC News “Good Morning America” ​​on Tuesday. ..

The pandemic caused economic turmoil as states and local governments imposed a stay-at-home order, closed businesses, quelled infectious diseases, and unemployed millions of people.

In Washington, McConnell told reporters that lawmakers wouldn’t postpone that year until they agreed on a new package of coronavirus bailouts for the unemployed and small businesses. It wanted to be attached to a larger government funding bill.