Even though it has not yet been approved by the FDA. And they will go together as one package to provide that capability to an administration site.īecause this is a once in a century pandemic, the vaccine is already being manufactured in bio-reactors inside sterile facilities like this one at Emergent BioSolutions in Baltimore. Paul Ostrowski: The idea is the kit will marry up with the vaccine. The medical distribution company, McKesson, says it already has produced enough kits for 88 million shots. Operation Warp Speed is also stockpiling kits of the needles, syringes and alcohol swabs needed to give the shot. General Gus Perna: I'm holding on to that number right now because I wanna not create anxiety and we need to work through the details. Why should we expect you to do a good job of distributing a vaccine?ĭavid Martin: Do you have doses of vaccine already stockpiled?ĭavid Martin: How many do you have stockpiled? Marion Whicker speaks with David Martinĭavid Martin: This country did not do a good job of containing the virus. But what we do know is that we can very quickly move dry ice from Puerto Rico.ĭavid Martin: The more I hear you talk, the bigger this operation gets.ĭavid Martin: It's not just delivering vaccine. And that they don't have an ability to dry ice. Marion Whicker: The Virgin Islands has already reported in that they don't have ultra-cold freezers. In the Warp Speed operations center, Marion Whicker, who came from making tanks for the Army, showed us the go/no-go board for what parts of the country are ready to handle an ultra-cold vaccine. Paul Ostrowski: We have to make sure that we send that particular vaccine to the right places, that either have that capacity or the ability to do the dry ice- that we'll need in order to keep it cold. Paul Ostroswki is a West Point graduate who retired from the Army this summer and became Perna's civilian deputy. Paul Ostrowski: Basically -80 degrees Celsius, which is 94 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.* Very cold. On top of that, the Pfizer vaccine, which could be ready next month, has to be kept very cold until it is used. General Gus Perna: We know it's a two-dose vaccine, so we want to ensure that we can manage the- the delivery of the first dose and ensure the delivery of the second dose- while we simultaneously integrate new rounds of doses being delivered to the American people. That's when it would start to get complicated because if approved, the Pfizer vaccine will require patients to receive two separate shots - 21 days apart. General Gus Perna: Is the day that- we deliver the first round of vaccine- for Pfizer. On his whiteboard is one possible scenario – the all important approval by the Food and Drug Administration of a vaccine developed by Pfizer, followed by approval of another from Moderna. General Gus PernaĪfter a career as an Army supply officer, General Gus Perna was two months away from retirement when President Trump tapped him last May to lead Operation Warp Speed. I hold myself 100% personally accountable to that end. Operation Warp Speed preps for COVID-19 vaccine delivery upon FDA approvalĭavid Martin: So if this distribution of vaccine is- doesn't go according to plan, where does the buck stop?.That would give this country what it badly needs right now – a shot in the arm. But it should make enough people immune so that the virus runs out of places to go. Just as with the annual flu shot, some of us will still get sick. Once approved, it will not be a silver bullet. For those of you longing to reclaim a semblance of your previous life, it may not seem all that speedy, but it is compared to the five to ten years it usually takes to field a new vaccine. He is in charge of Operation Warp Speed, the catchy title given to the crash program to inoculate 300 million Americans against the coronavirus by next spring. While the rest of the country has been counting votes, an Army general named Gus Perna has been counting doses of vaccine.
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