The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the Covid-19 vaccine would not be widely available by the end of February, as the Trump administration had earlier said.
The new administration is determined to achieve the goal of 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine within 100 days, Dr. Rochelle Walensky told Savannah Guthrie on the NBC program “TODAY”.
However, the shots will not be available to everyone in pharmacies by the end of February, as the flu vaccine, as former Health and Human Services Minister Alex Azar told Guthrie last month.
“We are going to, as part of our plan, put the vaccine in pharmacies. Will it be by that timeline in every pharmacy in this country? I do not think so,” Walensky said. “I do not think end of February, we are going to vaccinate in every pharmacy in this country.”
“After 100 days, there are still a lot of Americans who need vaccine, so we have our pedal on the metal to make sure we can get that much vaccine,” she said. “We realize that this is the immediate emergency to get this country healthy again.”
According to Walensky, the work to reach a 100-day goal has ‘already’ begun, and the key points of the plan are to make sure that the vaccine is eligible for the offer, that there are enough vaccines and that the vaccine sites’ are diverse, reaching all people. ‘
“The whole basis for the implementation of vaccines must be based on fairness, and we are committed to that,” she said.
A major goal is to help people with a “vaccine hesitation” by educating them about science so they can better understand the vaccine, according to Walensky.
The administration must also identify and solve distribution problems by making sure the vaccine, the syringes and the demand for shots occur in specific areas, she said.
“We met every day for at least six weeks or so. So the work has already started, so we are on the ground,” Walensky said. “The plan was not to start planning. The plan is to start working today and get it out to the people.”
Walensky, a specialist in infectious diseases at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, was sworn in on Wednesday when the U.S. reported 4,131 coronavirus-related deaths, setting a record for most COVID-19 deaths on one day was recorded.
Walensky said that at the current rate, another 100,000 coronavirus-related deaths could be expected by mid or late February.
