White House Wants 70% of Americans Vaccinated by 4th of July

“If that announcement comes, we are ready to move immediately and to make about 20,000 pharmacy sites across the country ready to vaccinate those adolescents as soon as the FDA gives its OK,” Biden said Tuesday. “We’re also going to ship vaccines direct to pediatricians in the coming weeks. You can get a shot from a provider you trust the most, easy, fast and free. And if teens are on the move this summer, they can get their first shot one place and their second shot elsewhere.”

For very young children 2 to 11, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on a call with investors Tuesday they expect to submit for emergency use for kids by September.

For the sake of expediency, the FDA will not host a meeting of its independent vaccine advisory committee members before the roll out of the vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds when that comes.

According to Pfizer, when their vaccine was administered in clinical trials to that group, it was 100% effective.

For now, the overwhelmingly positive results from clinical trials have left the FDA confident in passing the vaccine through to its critical next step, which comes by way of the CDC.

Once the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices give its stamp of approval, then the vaccine can begin flowing into the new demographic of Americans.

Side effects for adolescents are expected to be like those for adults, with participants in Pfizer-BioNTech’s study reporting fatigue, fever and achiness after the initial dose, as well as some body pain.

So far, however, efficacy and safety has remained so consistent that the pharma giant is expected to announce before the end of this month that its vaccine is poised for emergency use yet again. This time, the authorization would cover the bulk of the U.S. public: anyone ages 16 to 85.

Notably, in a financial report released Tuesday, Pfizer reported generating some $3.5 billion in revenue in its first year distributing its Covid-19 vaccine. Other vaccine makers like AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have operated on a nonprofit basis during the pandemic. Moderna, which was an upstart when it got into the vaccine game, opted to take the for profit route.

Under Pfizer-BioNTech’s contract with the federal government, the U.S. pays $19.50 per dose. A New York Times report on Pfizer’s first quarter analysis estimates profits reaped before taxes hover close to $900 million.

A representative for Pfizer did not immediately return request for comment.

Since the company last received the OK to administer doses to adults in December, about 32% of Americans or just over 147 million people, have received at least one of their two required shots from them or competitor drug maker Moderna.

Single-dose shots from Johnson & Johnson — using a different technology than the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to offer full immunization against the novel respiratory virus — have been administered to more than 105 million people so far despite a brief pause prompted by rare clotting in a narrow group of recipients.

For adults having trouble finding a vaccination location, the White House on Tuesday stood up a website, www.vaccines.gov, that allows users to search for a vaccine location by ZIP code. The same service is available via text. By texting a zip code to 438829, people can find a location and set up an appointment.

“This is not a Democrat or Republican issue,” Biden said, adding that people who are not fully vaccinated can still die from Covid-19.

"The science behind the vaccines has been under development for decades," he continued. "Two of our vaccines were authorized under prior administrations, Republican administrations. My administration is doing the work to get hundreds of millions of shots in arms. While we may not agree on everything, this is one thing we can all agree on."

Cases of Covid-19 are down overall in the U.S. since a peak that began cresting last Thanksgiving. Total deaths from Covid-19 are near 600,000 but daily death rates nationally have dropped slightly in the last two weeks. As of Monday, the daily death rate, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was about 733.

Typically, it can take up to a year for the FDA to expand authorization of a drug for widespread public consumption. But a slowdown in vaccinations can also mean hopes of herd immunity are slightly more dashed.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, emphasized this week that, while herd immunity may not be attainable this year, the focus should be on reducing infections overall — especially as virus mutations emerge. Most experts suggest the herd immunity threshold must reach at least 80%. Any other variations on the virus would warrant yet another increase to that already-high threshold.

Biden said Tuesday there should not be any misconceptions about the immensity of the nation’s vaccine goals. Once the Fourth of July comes and goes, people will still be getting vaccinated well into the fall, he said.

The struggle now, with ample supply on hand, is convincing even more people to get the shot. For those who are hesitant, the president offered a suggestion: “Look at the grandparents united with their grandchildren, friends getting together again. This is your choice. It is life or death, and I hope everyone knows within themselves it is a choice that will help them and their loved ones be safe and get our businesses back to normal.”

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