The UK has authorized the Pfizer vaccine and gave their first vaccination today; in the US, the FDA is meeting to decide on the Pfizer vaccine this Thursday (12/10). In the US, each state decides which groups of people will get the vaccine first, but CDC guidance is for at-risk groups and medical professionals first, followed by essential workers.
In class on Monday, we spoke with Professor Marc Lipsitch (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/marc-lipsitch/) at Harvard Chan who indicated that the US did not participate in COVAX. Given our political behavior at the time (including removing ourselves from the WHO), it wasn't unexpected.
Another thing to keep in mind is that data for vaccine is only related to mortality/morbidity for the person receiving the vaccine. There is no data (that I know of) that directly measures whether someone can transmit while vaccinated. We noted that, due to this, vaccine roll out should start with those who are most likely to die when it reaches the wider population. It's also too early to talk about "immunity passports" for COVID since we could just create a bunch of vaccinated asymptomatic carriers.
In class on Monday, we spoke with Professor Marc Lipsitch (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/marc-lipsitch/) at Harvard Chan who indicated that the US did not participate in COVAX. Given our political behavior at the time (including removing ourselves from the WHO), it wasn't unexpected.
Another thing to keep in mind is that data for vaccine is only related to mortality/morbidity for the person receiving the vaccine. There is no data (that I know of) that directly measures whether someone can transmit while vaccinated. We noted that, due to this, vaccine roll out should start with those who are most likely to die when it reaches the wider population. It's also too early to talk about "immunity passports" for COVID since we could just create a bunch of vaccinated asymptomatic carriers.