Vaccines

Covid-19 Live Updates: Vaccine Shipments Start to Roll in the U.S. The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine left a facility in Michigan early Sunday, with UPS and FedEx teaming up to ship them to all 50 states for distribution. nytimes

The first of nearly three million doses of the first Covid-19 vaccine were packed in dry ice and put on trucks at a Pfizer plant in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Sunday morning, destined for hundreds of distribution centers in all 50 states, the most ambitious vaccination campaign in American history.

U.S. government buys another 100 million doses of Moderna vaccine The expanded order would ensure continuous vaccine delivery through the end of June 2021, at a total cost of $3.2 billion, the Trump administration said. Sarah Owermohle POLITICO

The United States will buy 100 million additional shots of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine — doubling its initial order of the vaccine, which the FDA is expected to authorize later this month.

With new coronavirus cases and deaths continuing to emerge at record levels, the United States is poised to begin a lengthy vaccination campaign.

The first shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccine will not be enough to inoculate even just the medical workers and nursing home residents at the top of the waiting list. But after federal regulators granted emergency authorization for the Pfizer vaccine, millions of doses were expected to be shipped across the country, a small but tangible step toward ending the pandemic.

By design, the vaccine rollout will be a patchwork. Though federal regulators are responsible for deciding when a vaccine can be safely used, it is largely up to the states to determine how to deploy the doses they receive. Recipients of both vaccines will need two doses administered weeks apart. Distribution is meant to be based on adult population estimates.