Vaccine Rollout Means Pandemic End 'In Our Sight'
By: Sandy Fitzgerald
The pandemics end is in sight. We need to get through to that point with our economy intact. The vaccines are now here. We need to follow reasonable precautions as well. Unreasonable mandates and lockdowns need to be resisted because of the harm they cause to both reasonable precautions and to our rights, freedoms, and liberty as American citizens.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The news that COVID-19 vaccinations could start as early as next week means that "we can see the end" of the coronavirus pandemic, White House coronavirus testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir said Friday.
"(The end) is really in our sight, with 20 million people being able to be vaccinated in December, 30 million in January and another 50 million in February, just with the two vaccines we know about now, Pfizer and Moderna," Giroir said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
But he warned that there is still a great deal of work necessary before most people can be vaccinated and the pandemic ends, adding that it's important that healthcare workers be in the first groups to be vaccinated.
Health and Human Secretary Alex Azar said Friday that the Food and Drug Administration will grant emergency use authorization to Pfizer Inc.'s mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 within days and that the first Americans could be immunized as early as Monday or Tuesday. The shots are already being given in the United Kingdom.
A similar mRNA vaccine from Moderna will come under review next week and is also expected to be quickly authorized for use. Giroir said Friday the Pfizer vaccine will likely go first into healthcare settings, with Moderna's vaccine to be distributed a bit more widely.
"We are very confident that by the May-June time period that any American who wants a vaccine will (have) a vaccine available," said Giroir. "This will be extremely rapid."
The next group to be vaccinated will include vulnerable individuals, such as people who are not in a long-term care center but are elderly, said Giroir, but after that the vaccine will "rapidly roll out to the rest of the American people."
Meanwhile, Giroir said Friday that there is no evidence of a transmission risk with outdoor dining, as long as there is appropriate spacing, and added that in his opinion, restrictions should only be in place for COVID as are necessary to get through the pandemic.
"Overrestriction will cause frustration with the American people," said Giroir. "It will cause them not to obey even the good rules and it will kill jobs. Killing jobs means killing the economy and mental illness, substance use, all kinds of things."
Tags
Who is online
105 visitors
Thanks to the idiot in chief turning down additional doses means this thing will drag on. It could be another 6-8 months before we see any progress.
That happened at the end of summer. The US had purchased 100 million doses for $1.9 billion. This vaccine had just started their phase 3 trials so it wasn't known yet if it was going to be effective or not. There were also something like 6 other vaccines also just ending their phase 2 trials or starting their phase 3 trials, of which the US also had options to purchase.
While it would have been nice if we would have 600 million doses ready to be shipped out, how bad could it have been if the phase 3 testing found issues that delayed or even cancelled this one vaccine? The US government has contracts for a combined guarantee of 3 billion doses spread among the different companies that are making the vaccine. Wouldn't it have been risky to put all our eggs in the one basket hoping that it would come in effective and first?
And the FDA has granted emergency use authorization to the Pfizer vaccine which means that shipping should start very soon and the initial injections will start early next week. Woo Hoo!!!!
This is wisdom, right here. Restrictions that seem arbitrary and not based in science just make people distrust government more than they are already predisposed to do. The strategy should be to inspire cooperation for the necessary things and not just spray regulations all over the place in the name of "doing something."