White House Adviser Says It Will Be Months Before Everyone Has Access to CCP Virus Vaccines

White House Adviser Says It Will Be Months Before Everyone Has Access to CCP Virus Vaccines
Empty vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech CCP virus vaccine are seen at a vaccination center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 22, 2021. (John Locher/AP Photo)
Zachary Stieber
1/28/2021
Updated:
1/28/2021
Most groups won’t have access to CCP virus vaccines for a while, a White House adviser said Wednesday.

“We are taking action to increase supply and increase capacity, but even so it will be months before everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one,” Andy Slavitt, a White House senior adviser for the CCP virus response, said during a virtual briefing.

The two constraining factors are getting enough doses quickly enough and having the ability to administer doses once they’re produced and sent to sites around the country.

A stockpile of doses no longer exists as the administration continues the effort started before President Joe Biden took office to rush doses to administration sites to try to speed the pace of injections.

“We are confident that we will receive the supply on a rolling basis from the manufacturers to allow us to continue to do so,” Slavitt said.

The federal government has distributed 47.2 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, to states as of Jan. 27. Of that number 24.6 million doses have been administered. Nearly 4 million people have received two shots.

Both vaccines authorized for emergency use require two doses spaced three weeks or a month apart.

Biden’s administration set a goal of administering 100 million doses in his first 100 days in office. Officials are optimistic that goal will be reached, and Biden said this week he hoped the number per day could get as high as 1.5 million.