Federal officials in the US are expecting a limited number of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines to be available after they are authorized, despite predictions that hundreds of millions of vaccine doses would be available by the end of the year, the Washington Post reports.
It adds that federal officials' move to lower the number of doses they plan to ship has led local officials to have to make adjustments. For instance, the Post writes that Maine initially estimated that it would receive 36,000 doses of the vaccine, but now is expected to receive 12,675 doses. It notes that federal officials plan to stagger deliveries so that states have enough doses for the two-shot regimens.
This, the Post says, "reflects the disconnect between Trump's campaign promises, as well as the optimistic estimates from some drug companies, and scientific and manufacturing realities." In May, Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Speed, predicted there would be several hundred million vaccine doses available by the end of 2020, but has more recently said 35 million to 40 million doses will be shipped by year's end, according to the Post.
Both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have submitted applications for Emergency Use Authorizations for their candidate SARS-CoV-2 vaccines to the Food and Drug Administration, and Pfizer/BioNTech are to present their data to an FDA panel this week and Moderna next week.