NIH Director Collins: Should Be 20 Million COVID Vaccine Doses in December, ’25, 30 Million Doses’ Every Month After

On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Velshi,” NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins stated that without Operation Warp Speed, building a factory and manufacturing the needed doses of a coronavirus vaccine would take months, but instead, if a vaccine receives emergency use authorization, and everything goes well, “there will be something in the neighborhood of enough doses for 20 million people in December. … And then starting in January, there should be 25, 30 million doses every month coming along.”

Collins said, “Were it not for Operation Warp Speed, we’d be talking about months to build a factory and prepare tens of millions — hundreds of millions of doses. But because we knew this was going to be a crisis that needed everything done more quickly than ever. Warp Speed has been funding the manufacturing, Warp Speed being supported by the Congress and the public, so, thank you, taxpayers, to be sure that we had doses ready as soon as a vaccine got emergency use authorization. Not enough for everybody right away, there will be, if all goes well, and one or more of these gets approved for December, there will be something in the neighborhood of enough doses for 20 million people in December. And of course, those will need to go to the people at highest risk, particularly, the elderly, people with chronic illnesses, healthcare providers. That’s all being worked out by the CDC. And then starting in January, there should be 25, 30 million doses every month coming along. And maybe an acceleration of that. But for the whole country to expect to be fully immunized, we’re probably talking about late spring or even summer.”

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