Rising death toll tempers US enthusiasm over vaccine

A mounting US death toll has tempered enthusiasm about a coming COVID-19 vaccine with high fatalities projected every day for the months ahead, even with a rapid rollout of inoculations, which could start as soon as Monday.

According to reports, Another 2,902 US deaths were reported on Thursday, a day after a record 3,253 people died, a pace projected to continue for the next two to three months until the vaccine can be widely distributed.

Moving with unprecedented speed, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday was on the cusp of approving emergency use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc with its German partner BioNTech.

“The FDA informed Pfizer that they do intend to proceed towards an authorization for their vaccine,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told ABC News on Friday.

“We will work with Pfizer to get that shipped out so we could be seeing people getting vaccinated Monday or Tuesday,” Azar said.

Britain and Canada have already approved the Pfizer vaccine, and the US advisory panel is due to review a second vaccine, from Moderna Inc, next week. Other vaccine candidates are in the works.

While most vaccines take years to develop, the Pfizer vaccine arrives less than a year after the illness was traced to a market in Wuhan, China, in December of last year.

Chinese officials shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus with the World Health Organization on Jan. 12, triggering the international race toward a vaccine.

A US rollout faces significant logistical challenges to meet President-elect Joe Biden’s goal of inoculating 100 million people within 100 days of his inauguration on Jan. 20.

But any American who wants a vaccine should be able to get one by May or June, Assistant US Health Secretary Brett Giroir said on Friday.

States will determine who gets the vaccine first and were likely to focus on healthcare workers and people in long-term care facilities, followed by the elderly, people with chronic conditions and first responders, Giroir said.

Then there is the American skepticism about vaccines, with only 61% saying they are open to getting vaccinated.

In the meantime, grim statistics continue to pile up as the United States recorded more than 200,000 cases per day for four straight days with another 220,815 cases on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally of official data.

The United States has so far reported about 15.6 million cases and 292,642 deaths by Thursday.

Deaths are projected to reach 502,000 by April 1, according to an influential model by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

SS