RICHMOND, Va. — The Biden Administration is hitting the ground running with a new strategy to combat the coronavirus pandemic: 100 million vaccine doses in 100 days.
That’s a pace of a million doses per day.
Virginia’s Vaccine Coordinator Dr. Danny Avula said it's not impossible, but right now, vaccines are in short supply.
“It’s really about vaccine production," Avula said. "I don’t think the federal government is holding back large amounts of vaccine. I think vaccines can only be manufactured at a certain rate.”
Right now, there are not enough vaccine doses available for everyone who wants one.
But Avula said there are a few ways the government can accomplish its goal and rapidly increase vaccine production.
“One is to figure out how to funnel more money into Pfizer and Moderna to increase their production, and so that’s one piece of the puzzle," he said. "The second piece is new vaccines coming available.”
New vaccines by AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson are in the final stages of clinical trials in the United States.
Officials in countries like Brazil and the United Kingdom have already started distributing doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Here in the states, the FDA must authorize emergency use before the doses can be distributed.
“I think we’re looking at probably a couple months out before we see that vaccine being made available," Avula said. "We heard headlines from federal government that it’s saying it’s more like weeks and not months so we’re hopeful and we will certainly be ready to deploy that vaccine as soon as can get it.”
