The FDA gave emergency authorization use for Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine today and is expected. The company is expected to ship 4 million doses by the end of next week.
Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which received emergency authorization use approval in November and December respectively, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only a single dose. This will go a long way in achieving President Biden's objective of attaining 100 million vaccinations in in his first 100 days in office. The question is if Johnson & Johnson can keep up with the demand. Even if it can how long will be before someone in my age group will be eligible for any of vaccines?
I suspect this will take months. Consequently, mitigation measures such as masks and social distancing must remain for now. Since the Moderna vaccine was approved in December there have been more than 11 million new cases and 200,000 deaths in the United States due to COVID-19. In all, according to Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 28.5 million cases (28,553,692) and nearly 512,000 deaths (511,994) in the U.S. representing a mortality rate of 1.8%.
Although the spread of COVID-19 has slowed in recent weeks and now the approval of a third vaccine there will be more cases and more deaths especially as the virus continues to mutate.
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