Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar is optimistic about the groundbreaking coronavirus vaccine that is already being distributed in Britain.
In an appearance on “Good Morning America” Friday, Azar was asked about the Sanofi vaccine — the company recently suffered a setback for the company that projected 100 million doses in 2020.
Sanofi had hoped to begin distributing their vaccine in early 2021 but it will be pushed to later in the year after they found that it did not generate enough antibodies in elderly recipients.
Asked about the new Sanofi timeline, Azar told George Stephanopoulos, “We weren’t counting on [the Sanofi vaccine] in terms of getting to the projections that you and I have talked about of having enough vaccines for every American by the second quarter.”
He added, “We’re looking at 20 million Americans being vaccinated just in the next coming weeks. Up to 50 million total by the end of January and we believe we could have 100 million actual vaccination in arm by the end of February and the products just keep rolling out.”
Azar also suggested the potential coronavirus vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.
Watch the video below:
HHS Sec. Azar tells @GStephanopoulos, "We’re looking at 20 million Americans being vaccinated just in the next coming weeks. Up to 50 million total by the end of January…" https://t.co/v1dsjMAvCK pic.twitter.com/xPsZZC9rjP
— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 11, 2020
The HHS Secretary also announced during the interview that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will proceed toward authorizing emergency use for the Pfizer vaccine.
Azar added, “In the next couple days… we should be seeing the authorization of this first vaccine and, as you just said, we will work with Pfizer to get that shipped out. And so we could be seeing people getting vaccinated Monday, Tuesday of next week.”
NEW: HHS Azar says FDA will proceed with emergency use authorization for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine and vaccinations could come as soon as Monday or Tuesday of next week. https://t.co/v1dsjMAvCK pic.twitter.com/48CGRJRTVs
— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 11, 2020
Azar has often been optimistic about the vaccine. In late November, he said that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines could be in the arms of Americans by Christmas.
Though there were reports in the spring that President Donald Trump was considering replacing Azar in his cabinet, the Trump administration has defended the HHS secretary. Azar has been a loyal foot soldier of the president, defending the Trump family after they did not wear masks in the first presidential debate — and then the president, first lady, and their son Barron Trump later tested positive for coronavirus.
President-elect Joe Biden has also been hopeful about the coming vaccinations, saying that his administration hopes to oversee 100 million vaccinations for Americans in Biden’s first 100 days in the Oval Office.