12 per cent of Americans may not need coronavirus vaccine because of previous exposure, US officials say
- US government’s ‘Operation Warp Speed’ initiative is winnowing the number of vaccine candidates whose development it is supporting down to seven
- Federal agencies have committed almost US$3 billion to speed development of promising vaccines and improve manufacturing and distribution capacity
A Covid-19 vaccine that the Trump administration hopes will be available by January may not be equally effective for everyone, US officials said on Tuesday.
But, they added, they expect as many as 40 million Americans to have developed coronavirus antibodies by the end of this year, which would lower the population that would need the treatment that officials hope will end the pandemic.
“Operation Warp Speed”, an initiative under the auspices of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in coordination with the Food and Drug Administration, the Defence Department and other federal agencies, has committed nearly US$3 billion to speed development of promising vaccine candidates and build out manufacturing and distribution capacity.
HHS estimates that as many as 12 per cent of the total US population of about 331 million people will not need the inoculation because of previous exposure to the coronavirus, senior Trump administration officials told reporters.
More than 115,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 and over 2 million have been infected.