https://nypost.com/2020/11/09/biden-covid-19-vaccine-wont-be-widely-available-for-months/
President-elect Joe Biden warned Monday that the promising COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer won’t be widely available for months.
While hailing the “positive’’ medical breakthrough, the Dem said the vaccine and any other that is developed would still have to go through a “rigorous review and approval process’’ by the government to make sure their effectiveness is “grounded in science.
“It’s clear that this vaccine, even if approved, will not be widely available for many months yet to come,’’ Biden said at a press conference.”
Meanwhile, President Trump was unrestrained in his reaction to news of the vaccine, which was developed by the pharmaceutical giant and the German firm BioNTech.
“STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!’’ the president tweeted.
Biden, in an earlier statement, had praised “the brilliant women and men who helped produce this [vaccine] breakthrough and … give us such cause for hope.’’
But he said during his later televised appearance, “The challenge before us right now is still immense and growing.
“This crisis claimed nearly a thousand American lives a day and nearly 240,000 deaths so far. In fact, [projections are] still indicating we could lose 200,000 more lives in the coming months before a vaccine can be made widely available.
“So we can’t forego the important work that needs to be done between now and then,” he said.
Biden urged continued mask-wearing and for Americans to keep following other recommended safety precautions amid the pandemic, saying now is not the time to be making any political statements by not adhering to the advice of medical experts.
Trump’s critics have accused him of downplaying the virus and ignoring warnings by health experts of its dangers. He has said he is straddling the line between safety and keeping the economy afloat.
The president-elect — whose team unveiled a coronavirus task force a day earlier — spoke after he and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris met with the new advisory group, which includes former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and ex-Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler.
Biden called the task force a “transition advisory board’’ and said he would be adding new members.
Pfizer and BioNTech announced earlier Monday that they have developed a vaccine against the virus that is 90 percent effective.
https://nypost.com/2020/11/09/cuomo-emerges-as-stumbling-block-to-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-rollout/
News of a Pfizer breakthrough on a vaccine to fight the coronavirus came as welcome news to many today, but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo still expressed concern about it being rolled out under the Trump administration.
Cuomo blasted President Trump’s vaccine plan Monday morning as “flawed” and went so far as to declare: “We can’t let this vaccination plan go forward the way that Trump and his administration is designing it.”
The Democratic governor — who has a bitter relationship with the president — made the comments on “Good Morning America” Monday, moments after he acknowledged that tests on Pfizer’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine “look good” and he believes a vaccine will be “available shortly.”
Calling the promising breakthrough “bad news,” Cuomo said the vaccine rollout plan needed to be stopped until his old friend President-elect Joe Biden takes office in January, otherwise it will cause “damage.”
“The bad news is that it’s about two months before Joe Biden takes over, and this means [the Trump] administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan,” Cuomo said.
That plan, he said, is “flawed.”
I believe it learns nothing from the past,” Cuomo charged. “They’re basically going to have the private providers do it, and that’s going to leave out all sorts of communities that were left out the first time when COVID ravaged them.”
The governor threatened to slow-roll the desperately needed vaccine in the hard-hit Empire State in September, citing his distrust of the president and claiming the process was “politicized.”
Trump unloaded on Cuomo, calling him a “lowlife,” and said the vaccine had been developed by the “finest labs in the world.”
The braggadocio Big Apple-born lawmakers have a mutual loathing and have repeatedly traded blows at their daily press conferences during the pandemic, with Cuomo even suggesting the president would need “an army” to protect him if he wanted to walk on the streets of New York.
Warp Speed has promised to purchase $2 billion worth of vaccines from Pfizer when they are ready.
Cuomo said the Trump administration’s vaccine will be distributed through the “private mechanism” — including hospitals and drugstore chains, excluding poorer communities.
Communities in “health care deserts” — without any of those facilities nearby — will be in trouble, as was the case when the virus began to sweep the nation, Cuomo said.
“You have two months, and you can’t let this vaccination go forward the way the Trump administration is designing it — because Biden can’t undo it two months later,” he said.
“We’ll be in the midst of it. And I’ve been talking to governors across the nation about that. How can we shape the Trump administration vaccine plan to fix it or stop it before it does damage.”
He said the Biden administration would “depoliticize testing data” and “listen to the science, [which] is the exact opposite of Trump.”
Cuomo has previously said he wants his own team of in-house experts to review a federally approved COVID-19 vaccine before distributing the drug to millions of New Yorkers, arguing that he doesn’t think the FDA and CDC’s recommendations are “safe.”
metmike: And Cuomo accuses Trump of being political about the vaccine???
If the 90% effective rate turns out to be the better than hoped for number, it will crush COVID during 2021 and by the Fall, new positives instead of being up around 100,000/day might only be in the low single digit thousands.
Deaths/day in that case might be less than 50.
This might be best case scenario and it will be interesting how it evolves with the battle on mask wearing.
I can see a great advantage to people getting a card that certifies they were immunized against COVID or had COVID already in the past 6 months.
Those people would be very unlikely to be transmit COVID to others.
It will not happen that way under Biden but it would make common sense to do this, to also encourage people to get vaccinated..............and make them feel empowered if not give them more privileges.
Because Trump has been pushing the vaccine narrative, the MSM has been taking the opposite position, trying to scare people that Trump is making it available before its safe, so its going to be dangerous.
I know numerous people that are afraid of it for this reason.
I've never had the flu vaccine in my life but will take the COVID vaccine with no worries.
The frontline healthcare workers will likely have it before the rest of us, so if there's a major problem, they will be our guinea pigs.
Do get the COVID shot next year when its available in your area. This is the only way to defeat COVID.