Six Covid vaccines will be available for distribution in spring 2021, according to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
“I expect that we’ll have about six vaccines approved by the first quarter,” said Gates during the Singapore FinTech Festival.
The tech leader said that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as well as the candidates from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax would be approved and granted authorization over the next months. However, he did not identify the sixth vaccine source.
Gates acknowledged regulators in developed nations regarding the quick progress in vaccine approval and development.
“The Western regulators are doing a great job,” he said. “They’ve run these phase three trials in an incredibly professional way, looking for any side effects, looking at efficacy.”
“We need to make sure we (distribute) in a somewhat equitable way, that’s not how rich you are determines whether you get access to this vaccine,” said Gates.
Meanwhile, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has collaborated with India’s Serum Institute, the world’s biggest vaccine producer by volume, to start manufacturing and distributing AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate nationally. He added that they will carry out a similar setup with Serum for the Novavax vaccine.
“The goal is to get these things out as much as possible in 2021, so even in developing countries, the pandemic is over by some time in 2022,” said Gates.
The government's plan on distributing Covid vaccines
President Donald Trump will sign “America First,” an executive order that aims to prioritize inoculations in the U.S.
A senior administration official explained that the order is a “reaffirmation of the president’s commitment to America First.” Moreover, the order urges government agencies, including the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development, to coordinate to aid international partners and allies get hold of coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, an administration official told NBC News that the schedule for assisting other countries will be based on supply and demand but is expected to start in the second quarter. President-elect Joe Biden will officially start his office on Jan. 20 and could implement his own policy for the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
Meanwhile, Covid vaccine chief Moncef Slaoui set a vaccination schedule for the U.S., claiming that the entire population is done by June.
“Hopefully by the middle of the year, I hope most Americans will have been immunized, which means the level of hesitancy that exists currently will have been decreased because people will have learned more information … about the vaccine,” he told The Washington Post in a livestream interview.
He added that if everyone gets immunized, the U.S. “should have this pandemic under control in the second half of 2021.”
The government advisor admitted that it is “a big number” of doses to produce, but it is “a small number compared to the U.S. population and the need we have.” He further explained that people must still follow health protocols, like wearing face masks and social distancing.
Former FDA Chief and Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb has expressed optimism over Covid vaccine supply in 2021.
“The supply ramps very quickly as you move out and the more you push out that timeframe into 2021 by a week or two weeks, you have less supply in 2020,” Gottlieb said. “I’m hopeful that we’re going to have adequate supply in 2021 and it’s going to ramp very quickly, but hopefully these do get into the market this year.”
