4/19/2021
`
`US Health Experts: Vaccines Will Increase by Spring - The New York Times
`
`https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/us/cdc-vaccine-supply.html
`
`AstraZenecaʼs Vaccine Does Not Work Well Against Virus Variant in South Africa
`
`Top U.S. health experts say vaccine supplies and vaccinations will increase by spring.
`
`By Katie Thomas
`
`Feb. 7, 2021
`
`Though more contagious variants are spreading in the United States, top health officials sounded notes of optimism on Sunday that both
`the supply of vaccines and the rate of vaccination will steadily increase.
`
`“The demand clearly outstrips supply right now,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, said on the NBC
`program “Meet the Press.”
`
`“I can tell you that things are going to get better, as we get from February into March, into April, because the number of vaccine doses
`that will be available will increase substantially.”
`
`The number of shots administered daily in the United States has increased lately. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
`reported that more than 2.2 million doses were given on Saturday, and 1.6 million on Friday. That brought the latest seven-day average to
`1.4 million a day, which approaches President Biden’s new goal of 1.5 million shots per day.
`
`In addition, the supply of vaccines — though still well below demand — is growing. Federal officials recently increased shipments to the
`states to 10.5 million doses a week, as Moderna and Pfizer gradually increase production. The two companies have deals to supply the
`United States with a combined 400 million doses — enough to vaccinate 200 million people — by the summer.
`
`Pfizer recently said that it would deliver its doses two months ahead of schedule, by May, in part because it is now counting an additional
`dose in each vial it is manufacturing. And Moderna is considering a production change that would allow it to increase the number of doses
`in its vials to 15 from 10.
`
`Officials are also counting on the Food and Drug Administration authorizing a one-dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson later this month.
`Although that company will initially provide the United States with only a few million doses, it is expected to step up output considerably
`by April. Other vaccines from Novavax and AstraZeneca could also be authorized for U.S. use in the spring, further increasing supply.
`
`Officials are racing to vaccinate as many people as possible in order to outpace more contagious variants of the virus that were first
`identified in Britain and South Africa. The variant from Britain, known as B.1.1.7, is spreading rapidly in the United States, with its
`prevalence doubling roughly every 10 days, according to a new study. The C.D.C. said it could become the dominant form of the virus in
`the United States by March.
`
`Although that variant is worrisome because it is more transmissible than earlier variants, vaccine developers are more concerned about a
`variant discovered in South Africa, known as B.1.351, because it appears to make current vaccines less effective. Several manufacturers
`have said they are addressing the problem by developing new versions of their vaccines, which could act as booster shots. The Food and
`Drug Administration has said it is working on a plan to allow those new vaccine versions to be authorized.
`
`Developers of the AstraZeneca and University of Oxford vaccine said on Sunday that they expected to have a modified version of their
`vaccine available by the fall.
`
`On the CBS program “Face the Nation,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former F.D.A. commissioner and a member of Pfizer’s board, said on Sunday
`that he believed it would be possible to develop a booster that “bakes in a lot of the different variations that we’re seeing.”
`
`“I think that there is a reasonable chance that we’re going to be able to stay ahead of this virus,” he said.
`
`https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/us/cdc-vaccine-supply.html
`
`1/1
`
`KOSS-2004
`IPR2021-00381
`
`