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The United States plans to begin distributing coronavirus vaccine within 24 hours of one being approved, federal officials said Wednesday. It’s an audacious goal in an already frantically paced COVID-19 vaccine development and distribution program being overseen by the White House's aptly-named Operation Warp Speed. The goal is that 24 hours after a license or an Emergency Use Authorization is issued "we have vaccine moving to administration sites,"  Lt. Gen. Paul A. Ostrowski, Operation Warp Speed deputy chief of supply, production and distribution, said on a media call Wednesday morning. (Weise and Weintraub, 9/16)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined a sweeping plan Wednesday to make vaccines for Covid-19 available for free to all Americans. In the plan, the CDC said it anticipates a coronavirus vaccine will initially be granted an emergency use authorization before a full formal approval. Much of the guidance, but not all, described in the plan will overlap with many routine activities for immunizations and pandemic influenza planning, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said on the same call. (Lovelace Jr., 9/16)

But supplying and distributing those vaccines is a complex logistical puzzle involving the US Department of Defense, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other parts of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Vaccines now in trials have different transport and storage requirements, some involving extremely cold temperatures; some require a second dose at 21 or 28 days after the first, and they aren't interchangeable; and some require particular needles and syringes. (Gumbrecht and Thomas, 9/16)

In today's statement, CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, said the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will play a vital role in deciding how initial limited doses will be allocated, looking at a goal of having more than 100 million doses by January. As part of a three-phase plan, the first doses would go to healthcare workers in high-risk settings, then to other essential workers and those at higher risk of severe disease, such as people age 65 and older. HHS added that McKesson will use the CDC's guidance, with logistical support from the DOD, to ship products to vaccine administration sites. (Schnirring, 9/16)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is requiring states and jurisdictions to submit plans on how they’d administer and distribute a vaccine by Oct. 16. They’re facing a host of challenges, such as how to store a vaccine that’s expected to need to be kept in specialized freezers. ... Doses may be available as early as November to limited groups, but that supply may increase substantially in 2021. Final decisions on who will be first in line to get the shots will be made later. (Roubein and Owermohle, 9/16)

Health officials noted that the plan is flexible, because some variables won't be known until a vaccine is authorized or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), such as populations for whom a given vaccine is most appropriate, distribution and storage requirements, dosage requirements and other variables. "We're dealing in a world of great uncertainty," Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at HHS, said during a call with reporters. "We don't know the timing of when we'll have a vaccine, we don't know the quantities, we don't know the efficacy of those vaccines ... so this is a really, quite extraordinary, logistically complex undertaking." (Weixel, 9/16)

State officials are expressing skepticism about federal reviews of potential COVID-19 vaccines, with some going so far as to plan to independently analyze clinical trial data before distributing a vaccine in a sign of how sharply trust in federal health agencies has fallen this year. The wariness, which public health experts call highly unusual if not unprecedented, could undercut the goal of a cohesive national immunization strategy and create a patchwork of efforts that may sabotage hopes of containing the coronavirus. Some red states appear more likely to rely on the Trump administration while blue states may scour the data and be more cautious about vaccinating their residents immediately. (Kopp, 9/17)

If not enough Americans get a Covid-19 vaccine when it becomes available, it won't help reduce the spread of the deadly virus, the nation's top infectious disease official said. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed the risks of too few people taking the vaccine. Even a third of Americans getting vaccinated against the coronavirus won't be enough, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said. (Waldrop, Erdman and Fox, 9/17)