Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is providing the average American with a timeline of when they will be able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
PBS’s Margaret Hoover asked Bourla when Americans will realistically be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I believe sometime in the next year, maybe the third or the second quarter. The reason why I’m saying that, we will be able to provide to the American people around 20 million or more doses this year,” Bourla said.
He added:
“But this is 10 million people with two doses and I’m sure that the health authorities would like to use them strategically. So at the beginning, who will get the vaccine will be predetermined by them and likely, I assume it will be people either with high risk or in first line workers.”
Bourla confirmed by next summer Americans should have access to the vaccine.
Check out the video below:
CEO @AlbertBourla tells @MargaretHoover @Pfizer “will be able to provide to the American people around 20 million doses or more” of its two-dose vaccine this year, likely for high risk people & frontline workers, and the public should be able to get it by the 2nd quarter of 2021. pic.twitter.com/lxePioUEjK
— Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) November 18, 2020
On Wednesday, Pfizer announced the company’s trial results showed its COVID-19 vaccine was 95% effective, as IJR previously reported.
Pfizer plans to apply for emergency U.S. authorization shortly.
“With hundreds of thousands of people around the globe infected every day, we urgently need to get a safe and effective vaccine to the world,” Bourla said in a statement.
Pfizer predicts it will produce up to 50 million vaccine doses this year alone and next year the company could manufacture as many as 1.3 billion doses.
The drugmaker has initiated a pilot delivery program for the vaccine in four states, as IJR previously reported.
Some are concerned President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the election will affect the distribution of the vaccine.
“More people may die if we don’t coordinate,” President-elect Joe Biden said.
Dr. Rick Bright, a member of Biden’s coronavirus task force, warned Trump’s decision not to cooperate could delay vaccine distribution.