Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Doses Of Pfizer's Vaccine Arrive In US By Chartered Flights
United Airlines Holdings Inc. on Friday began operating charter flights to position doses of Pfizer Inc.鈥檚 Covid-19 vaccine for quick distribution if the shots are approved by regulators, according to people familiar with the matter. The initial flights are one link in a global supply chain being assembled to tackle the logistical challenge of distributing Covid-19 vaccines. Pfizer has been laying the groundwork to move quickly if it gets approval from the Food and Drug Administration and other regulators world-wide. (Sider and Loftus, 11/27)
Charter flights bringing Pfizer's聽COVID-19 vaccine to the United States from Belgium began on Friday, the start聽of what the Federal Aviation Administration calls the first聽"mass air shipment" of a coronavirus vaccine. There are no authorized coronavirus vaccines in the U.S. yet, but preparations for distribution are ramping up.聽Under FDA rules,聽vaccine cannot be聽shipped to actual administration sites until it was been either licensed or authorized by FDA. (Weise and Aspegren, 11/29)
In related developments on vaccine distribution 鈥
Members of President Donald Trump鈥檚 coronavirus task force fanned out across Sunday talk shows to promise a rapid rollout of coronavirus vaccines to millions of Americans by year-end. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the federal government hopes to quickly review and approve requests from two drugmakers for emergency approval of their Covid-19 vaccines. (Condon and Yang, 11/29)
State officials were prepared to distribute doses of drugmaker Pfizer鈥檚 COVID-19 vaccine 鈥渋n the coming days,鈥 Gov. Greg Abbott said Saturday. Abbott tweeted a link to a Wall Street Journal article that reported United Airlines had started operating charter flights to position doses of the vaccine for rapid distribution if approved by federal and global regulators and wrote, 鈥淭exas is ready to distribute these vaccines in the coming days.鈥 (Serrano, 11/28)