The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging state governors to begin prepping sites to distribute a coronavirus vaccine by early November.
This week, the agency asked states to expedite applications for distribution sites and potentially “waive requirements that would prevent these facilities from becoming operational by November 1.”
Distributing a coronavirus vaccine in early November would mean that it would have to be given an emergency use authorization before its phase 3 trials are complete, which is a move that FDA commissioner, Stephen Hahn, has indicated the agency is willing to make.
There are currently three vaccines in phase 3 trials in the U.S. — candidates from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna entered late-stage testing in July and AstraZeneca launched its phase 3 trial this week.
The timing of the CDC’s goal date for distribution (just two days before the presidential election) is not likely to be lost on Americans. In a recent Harris Poll, a vast majority of the 2,067 Americans surveyed said that they believed the process of approving a coronavirus vaccine is being driven more by politics than science (72 percent who agreed were Republican and 82 percent were Democrats).