- The United States Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has flagged a potential COVID-19 vaccine for the start of November — days before the upcoming Presidential Election.
- A letter from CDC director Dr Robert Redfield has been widely circulated in which he urges states governors to expedite vaccine distribution
- In the letter, he asked governors to consider waiving conventional requirements to speed up the vaccine process
- He stressed that the requests would not jeopardise the safety or integrity of the vaccine at all
- This is part of the U.S. ‘Operation Warp Speed’, which plans to deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021
The United States Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has flagged a potential COVID-19 vaccine for the start of November — days before the upcoming Presidential Election.
A letter from CDC director Dr Robert Redfield to U.S. governors has been widely circulated since first being obtained by McClatchy. In the letter, Dr Robert urges state governors to do everything they can to bring about a smooth path to vaccine released by November 1.
The letter, which is dated August 27, asked governors to fast-track permits and licences for new distribution sites.
“The normal time required to obtain these permits presents a significant barrier to the success of this urgent public health program,” the letter said.
“CDC urgently requests your assistance in expediting applications for these distribution facilities and, if necessary, asks that you consider waiving requirements that would prevent these facilities from becoming fully operational by November 1, 2020,” Dr Robert wrote, according to McClatchy.
He stressed that the requirements governors may be asked to waive in order to expedite vaccine distribution will not compromise the safety or integrity of the vaccine.
Vaccine race
Vaccine development has been kicked into hyperdrive thanks to the Trump administration’s ‘Operation Warp Speed’.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the operation’s goal is to deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021.
The operation is a partnership between the major components of the HHS, including the CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and even the Department of Defense (DoD).
In late-July, Dr Anthony Fauci — America’s top infectious diseases expert — said he was “cautiously optimistic” a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine could be available to the public by the end of 2020.
He even said a vaccine by October, while unlikely, was “not impossible”.
Like the 2020 version of the Space Race, this comes soon after Russia said it would be injecting frontline healthcare workers with a vaccine in mid-August.