US President Joe Biden
The US decided to advance the completion of vaccination for the entire nation, which is a’game changer’, from the end of July to the end of May, and started a full battle for vaccine production.
The US re-enacts the Defense Goods Production Act
J&J vaccine production, competitor Merck also participated
Unusual’sleeping with the enemy’ to increase the quantity
Delayed vaccination German ships “Envy England”
President Joe Biden said in a speech at the White House on the 2nd (local time) that “by the end of May, we are on track to provide enough vaccines for all American adults to be vaccinated.” It is two months ahead of the goal of securing vaccines for 260 million adults living in the United States from the end of July.
To this end, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it had decided to partially produce Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine, which was approved for emergency use (EUA) by re-enacting the Defense Goods Production Act. did.
The White House said it had directly arranged for Merck to participate in production due to delays in supply of the J&J vaccine. It is an unprecedented’sleeping with the enemy’ that competitors share one product.
President Biden explained, “Two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, which were competitors, are now working together.” The Biden administration provided Merck with a federal budget of $2680.8 million (approximately 301.5 billion won) to equip Merck with the necessary production facilities.
According to the Washington Post (WP), the Biden administration learned that J&J’s vaccine production had been disrupted in late January, just after taking office. J&J was initially scheduled to supply 37 million doses of vaccine by the end of this month, but it will only supply 20 million doses, which is half that amount, said at a hearing last week in the House of Representatives.
Officials scoured the country to find a vaccine production facility, and Merck was sold. Merck is the only supplier of essential vaccinations for children such as measles and mumps, and is the strongest in the vaccine industry, which also succeeded in developing the Ebola vaccine in 2019, but the development of the Corona 19 vaccine was discontinued because antibodies were not produced in phase 1 clinical trials.
WP explained that Merck’s urgent injection should be viewed as a stable vaccine supply after the second half of this year. Even after all American adults have been vaccinated, the vaccine will continue to be in demand due to the spread of the mutant virus and the need for a’booster shot’ (an upgraded vaccine with enhanced preventive effects).
Germany, which used to be Europe’s representative’model country for quarantine’, is now envious of Britain, a’vaccine leader’. According to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker on the 3rd (local time), Germany administers about 6.4 million doses of the Corona 19 vaccine, and the number of vaccinations per 100 people is 7.7. This falls short of not only the UK (31.92 times) and the US (23.68 times), but also the European Union (EU) average (7.77 times). Korea is 0.04 times.
In Germany, the voice of criticism is growing. Local media reported on the top page “England, we envy you!” (Biltji Feb. 24), while opposition Liberal Democratic Representative Marco Bushman said, “Even Morocco is inoculation faster than Germany. Is fast,” he criticized.
Ulrich Wegelt, head of the German General Medical Association, told the Financial Times (FT), “There is a problem that the EU has not been able to supply enough vaccines, but the vaccines are not being used and are stacking up. “This is a shame.” Currently, Germany is vaccinating the AstraZeneca vaccine only for adults aged 18-64, because there is not enough data that it is effective in people over 65 years old.
Washington = correspondent Park Hyun-young, Seoul = reporter Seok Kyung-min [email protected]
