The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling on governors to assist the agency with expediting applications for vaccine distribution sites to make them operational by Nov. 1.
Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, told health agencies and governors in a letter the vaccine distribution program is “expected to be a public health effort of significant scale, potentially involving hundreds of millions of vaccine doses.”
According to Redfield, the CDC has partnered with the McKesson Corporation to distribute the vaccine to state and local health departments, medical facilities, doctor offices, and other vaccine providers.
“The normal time required to obtain these permits presents a significant barrier to the success of this urgent public health program,” Redfield said.
He added, “CDC urgently requests your assistance in expediting applications for these distribution facilities and, if necessary, asks that you consider waiving requirements that would prevent these facilities from becoming fully operational by November 1, 2020.”
Redfield reassured governors, “The requirements you may be asked to waive in order to expedite vaccine distribution will not compromise the safety or integrity of the products being distributed.”
CDC Director Redfield sent a letter to governors "urgently" requesting them to expedite applications for vaccine distribution facilities and waive requirements that would prevent them "from becoming fully operational" by November 1, @CBSNews confirms.
— Sara Cook (@saraecook) September 2, 2020
First reported by @mcclatchy pic.twitter.com/nFrS7vpA3W
The World Health Organization expressed concern after a health official in the United States said a vaccine might be approved even if it does not complete full trials, as IJR previously reported.
White House spokesman Judd Deere fired back in a statement, “The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China.”
On Sept. 1, at least 1,091 new coronavirus related deaths and 44,027 new cases were reported by the United States.
Since the onset of the pandemic there have been more than 6 million confirmed infections with a death toll of more than 185,000.
There have been an average of 42,214 cases per day over the past week, which is a 13% decrease from the average two weeks prior.
