Donald Trump pledged on Friday that 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine would be manufactured by the end of the year, and enough to immunize 330 million Americans by April 2021.
• Read also: All developments in the COVID-19 pandemic
“We will have manufactured at least 100 million doses by the end of the year, and then probably many more, hundreds of millions of doses will be available each month, and we will have enough vaccines for all Americans by April.” , the US president said at a White House press conference, reiterating his optimism about the outcome of ongoing clinical trials of investigational vaccines.
He did not say which manufacturers would be able to deliver those volumes, but two companies, Moderna and Pfizer, are in active phase 3 clinical trials of their investigational vaccines, with the first awaiting results in November, the second in October.
The two have contracted with the US government to deliver hundreds of millions of doses, and US health officials have started preparations to be able to store and deliver the first doses as early as October, and within 24 hours of a possible Authorization by the Medicines Agency (FDA).
Each vaccine would be injected in two doses separated by three or four weeks.
The date of availability of a US vaccine is an issue in the campaign for the presidential election on November 3, Democratic candidate Joe Biden having said he does not trust Donald Trump to guarantee the integrity of the scientific approval process.
Moncef Slaoui, senior official of Operation Warp Speed responsible for vaccines, told NPR radio on September 3 that he expected a volume of doses sufficient to vaccinate between 20 and 25 million people by the end of the year. ‘year. And the director of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), Robert Redfield, said this week that the vaccine would likely not be available to the majority of Americans until the second or third quarter of 2021.