The federal government is delivering 3.9 million doses of Johnson and Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine beginning today, simply days after the FDA gave the shot emergency situation use permission.
Those dosages are all that the company has on hand, White Home COVID-19 Reaction organizer Jeff Zients stated on a call with press reporters today. The delivery will suffice to cover 3.9 million Americans since the vaccine is just a single shot.
” That is the totality of Johnson and Johnson’s inventory,” said Zients. The company said that “the supply will be limited for the next couple of weeks,” he included.
J&J will deliver another 16 million dosages by the end of March, he stated. That confirms what the company stated quickly after Saturday’s FDA permission.
He included that the business “anticipates the shipment to be predominantly in the back half of the month.”
J&J plans to provide 100 million doses to the US by July 1.
The vaccine will be designated with the exact same scheme used for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines– in proportion to a state, territory, city or tribe’s population, stated Zients. Today, for example, New york city state will get 93,700 doses, while the US Virgin Islands will receive 8000 and Washington, DC will get 6000.
Some have actually hypothesized that the J&J vaccine might be given only to more marginalized communities due to the fact that it is does not need ultra-cold storage and will be easier to administer.
However Zients said the CDC and the federal government continue to emphasize that vaccines need to be dispersed equitably. The CDC will track vaccine circulation by zip code and utilizing the firm’s social vulnerability index, stated Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of the administration’s COVID-19 Health Equity Job Force.
” Should particular vaccines go regularly to particular communities, we will be able to intervene,” said Nunez-Smith.
Zients also acknowledged that scheduling problems are a restricting factor in getting more Americans vaccinated. “It is too discouraging, and we require to make it better,” he said.
The federal government is dealing with states to improve scheduling, which might even mean opening call centers, he said.
On The Other Hand, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, stated she stresses that Americans are pulling down their guard when the pandemic is far from over. “I remain deeply concerned about a potential shift in the trajectory of the pandemic,” said Walensky at the instruction.
Declines in cases have “leveled off at a very high number,” she stated, plateauing to around 70,000 per day. Deaths have increased 2%in the most current week to almost 2000 daily, Walensky stated. “Now is not the time to relax the important safeguards,” she warned, adding that Americans have the capability “to stop the 4th rise” of the pandemic.
” Please hear me clearly: At this level of cases, with variations spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have acquired,” she stated. Variants are “a really real risk to our individuals and our progress.”
Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergic Reaction and Contagious Diseases (NIAID) and President Biden’s primary medical consultant, said the increase of another brand-new variation, B. 1.526– flowing in New York City– is concerning.
” We are definitely taking the New York variation, 526, extremely seriously,” Fauci stated on the call. That alternative, very first found in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan– possibly in an immunocompromised individual– has actually “gone through multiple districts and is now getting,” he stated.
Studies are looking into whether the variant may be more infectious, or if it might render monoclonal antibody treatments ineffective, or if it could have an influence on the numerous COVID-19 vaccines, stated Fauci.
But he stated immunocompromised people should “definitely” still be vaccinated, for their own health, and to prevent the development of any more versions.
Alicia Ault is a Lutherville, Maryland-based freelance reporter whose work has appeared in publications consisting of Smithsonian.com, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. You can find her on Twitter @aliciaault
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