Johnson & Johnson board member Dr. Mark McClellan told CNBC that “if the clinical trial works,” the company could significantly increase the country’s availability of Covid vaccine supply in the coming weeks.
“I know that J&J is making a very large supply, going as far as possible with its production, both here in the United States and in other parts of the world, with the goal of having perhaps enough vaccines for 100 million Americans by the spring, by April or so, “the former FDA commissioner said in an interview Thursday night in” The News with Shepard Smith “.
During comments at the White House on Thursday, the government’s top infectious physician, Anthony Fauci, said Johnson & Johnson would have enough data about its vaccine to begin testing within a week or two. McClellan told presenter Shepard Smith that the most important for the company’s vaccine is the large-scale clinical trial that is now underway.
“The independent scientists who are overseeing this study should take a close look in the very near future based on these results, and we will see how quickly the vaccine can advance,” said McClellan.
The United States has been giving an average of about 883,000 doses of the Covid vaccine a day for the past six days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite this, less than 50% of the 37,960,000 doses delivered reached the people.
At least 12 states have reported vaccine shortages. Officials in San Francisco and New York have warned that they may be completely without doses this week. At least 15 vaccination sites in New York City have been temporarily closed. New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio told NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez that at least 23,000 vaccine appointments will need to be rescheduled.
McClellan noted that “supply will increase, but probably not enough to keep up with the large number of Americans who really want to be vaccinated now.” He told Smith, however, that he thinks the Biden administration could help speed up the vaccine’s release.
“It will be a challenge, but I think the supply will be there in the next two months to vaccinate even more than 100 million Americans,” said McClellan, a health policy expert at Duke University.
President Joe Biden pledged a “large-scale war effort” to combat the coronavirus pandemic and accelerate vaccine production using the Defense Production Act over a briefing Fifth.
“We have already identified the suppliers and we are working with them to carry out the plan,” said Biden.
He added that DPA would help solve problems with the supply chain, including the lack of syringes.