The first of many freezer-packed COVID-19 vaccine vials made their way to distribution sites across the United States on Sunday, as the nation's pandemic deaths approached the horrifying new milestone of 300,000.
An important federal advisory committee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added its vote of support for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Minnesota health officials reported 67 more COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, pushing the December death toll to 766. It’s now killing Minnesotans at a rate far higher than any recent flu season; about one-third of all recent deaths in Minnesota are tied to COVID-19.
The FDA called the vaccine from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech safe and strongly protective. But initial doses are scarce and rationed, with health workers and nursing home residents first in line. Enough for the general population isn't expected until spring.
Dr. Jeff Bahr with the Advocate Aurora Health system in Wisconsin says his hospitals are "ready to go" for vaccinations. Staff who treat COVID-19 patients will be first in line, he says.
The number of people who want a COVID-19 vaccine far outweighs the number of doses currently available. MPR host Kerri Miller asked a vaccine researcher and a bioethicist about the best practices and challenges of distributing vaccines in a global pandemic.
The Food and Drug Administration's authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine could come in a day or two, a member of an FDA expert panel says. But he says it may be late 2021 before normalcy returns.
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